Author Note: Awesome D.T, I fulfilled my promise to you! Now we are fair. HOW YOU LIKE THAT? #Rivalry. Anyway, it's kinda embarrassing to update after one whole year. Just yesterday was Empress one year anniversary U.U I'm not going to promise and say I'll update more often but this is is one of those stories that I wish to finish.

It was a beautiful evening, the sky's usual blue hues overtaken by the illuminating sun. The condensing temperature gradually decreased for the night, almost at a freezing point but she couldn't seek warmth yet. Her bare feet hopped on one foot to another in a rhythmic pattern. If anyone saw her, they would think she was playing hopscotch.

"When is Kana coming?" Yura muttered, a wave of goosebumps evaluated her body. Her eye lowered down to her feet; they were bright pink with blisters and cuts all around. Patches of dirt were very evident with how the soil buried underneath her chapped, irregular nails from curling them downward and scattered on her wounds, irritating them. But the condition they were in wasn't bothering her. No, it was the coldness that got on her nerves. It was killing her feet. This time of the year wasn't called the worst for nothing.

Winter is, without a doubt, humanity's second biggest foe when she thought about it deeply. Many children succumb to illness thus they are easy targets to death. They can't grow their harvest so famie was one of the biggest issues. Preparation for war was around the corner…

And there will be an auction in 2 days.

Her feet stopped their unintentional dancing for a moment. Those demons were so crafty, almost as if they knew their disadvantages so they picked now of all days to weaken them. It was very clever of them to make them this submissive so even she couldn't get angry. Their motive was not only to toy with them but to make them powerless... to put them in place. Clever indeed, she was starting to see why they lost to them a century ago.

Her feet pivoted to make a sharp twirl to her right, the hem of her black kimono fluttering a bit from the motion. The back of Lord Zen's household was within her sight range now despite being nothing but a mere blur. It was large, with a dull, outdated hay roof top. The pillars had a natural imperfection that began with several cracks in between, spreading everywhere, to the different patch of brown. The wooden tiles had holes and gaps underneath that resulted with strange, but almost inaudible sound whenever the wind blows. It was warm and exuded wealth from a mile. At least to people like her, this was the wealthy.

To most, however, this wasn't wealth because they were blind, blinded by the ray of hope over an exceptional doctor such as Zen who helped out the people for free. He would surely be loved by many, from old to young, making everyone's already-difficult life easier with his superior skills.

Yura's gaze lingered a little longer at the small cottage, going through all the memories of Kana helping him out as his assistant for 5 years. She knew Kana had a small crush on him for a while now but Yura didn't like him. Not one single bit. He was too charitable to be true, too suspicious for her to trust him, too wealthy in this poor world but even with those thoughts, Yura didn't miss a chance to use his supposed 'kindness' against him. It's was a blessing in disguise... to use someone with a good reputation to her advantage. She needed him to ward off demons from Kana since she was sort of magnetic to them. After all, she had nothing to lose while he did. Kana always mentioned how unnecessarily suspicious she was but she would never give up investigating him. She couldn't trust him or any other human... the only people she trusted were her adoptive sister and mother. Those two alone.

She used one of her feet to rub the other with aggression, finding a particular spot very itchy from the bug bites. She was still in the forest territory, near a large tree that gave the best view of their infirmary so what was taking Kana too long? She was pretty sure her adoptive sister got her encrypted message by now .

"YURA-CHAN!"

Yura, not at all disturbed by Kana's usual antics, continued watching the infirmary with burning suspicion before turning away without any doubt. That man wanted something from them. She had to find out what it was.

"Yura... ha...ha.. chan..." Kana trudged as fast as she could, barely able to run anymore. Panting every second, Kana held her knees with one hand to keep herself together then took one heavy footstep after another to reach her destination. She brought her occupied hand closer to her chest in uncertainty. Her head whipped left, right, behind then back front, repeating this action again to satisfy her paranoia. This place was too quiet and colorless for her taste. The grass had lost its beautiful vibrant texture, turning brown day by day, the roots of the tree were frosty, bringing constant reminder of the tragedy that would come in 2 days, and it was spacious, with the trees keeping distant from each other, mourning their leaf-less self. She hoped... nothing followed her.

"I got the stuff you asked for," Kana muttered, unwrapping the cloth from its bag shape to reveal what it originally were, a kimono, filled with long, thin stems and a towel.

Yura didn't miss the way her eyes averted guiltily, the way she usually does when something big happens, when she got that. She also noticed a scar on her cheeks that wasn't there before. Without saying anything, she started to strip. Kana's hand smacked her nose at the musky, rancid smell that came out of the now taken off, inside out, kimono Yura had. Blood! She thought alarmed, Yura really did it. Her pupil followed the way it plopped down on the floor, using her leg to push it further away from her.

When Yura attempted to grabbed the fresh ones out of her hand, she snapped out of it, slapping her hand lightly away from it. Her raised eyebrows showed her confusion but Kana let her actions speak for her. She swung the cloth over her shoulders to stabilize it from falling off and used the wet towel she had on to wipe the dirt and blood off her sister's skin, starting by her cheeks.

Yura made her job easier when she spread her arms and legs to let her clean the unreachable parts. There was silence, with the sound of wind blowing and squirrel chirping being the only company they had as Kana scraped her skin as fast as she could, trying to get rid of the evidence.

"Here." Once she was done, she handed her the new set of clothes to wear and started sitting down on the ground to work on the waraji. Yura could see beyond Kana's concentrated gaze the convulsive movement her lips were making, making it clear she wanted to say something.

"Yura-chan... w-who did y-you kill?" Kana expertly entwined the third straw to the other two, sticking them together as tight as possible. Her hobby was making footwear so she was quick when it came to her hand. She cast Yura a brief side glance before they lay back to where they belong; the straws.

"You know better than to ask," Curiosity kills the cat after all.

Yura gave one last tug to her dress up as the finale touch and was crouching down beside Kana watching her do her sewing. She didn't like this question because the answer was always obvious. It didn't help that Kana would freak out if she heard what she had done today in specific.

"...okay." The way she sounded so dejected had Yura sigh mentally. This is why she didn't like talking with Kana. That submission side of hers irritated her. If she wanted an answer, she should demand for it. That's why Hebidayu almost took advantage of her in the past. Had she not drenched her sister in horse poop she would have been killed for rejecting him. Of all the people in district 8, Kana was the only one who showed such fear, misery, and obedience to those disgusting pigs. Her hand tighten at the thought of how Kana could be used if she wasn't there for her. Kana was more fragile than a pup.

However, they would eventually know the truth... both Kana and her mother as well so Yura calculated how much she should tell. She wasn't fond of sugarcoating, the idea of going around the answer was ridiculous but she also didn't want to be honest yet... Although how could she say this without invoking panic?

"I killed the soldiers." Kana involuntarily inhaled sharply, her hand froze halfway through the air the moment Yura uttered those words. It lasted for a couple of seconds before she resumed weaving... except this time her hands were trembling, trembling so much she could barely do her job right. To kill someone working directly under the king... she needed to breathe.

"Yura," she breathed out, closing her eyes to get a minute to think this through. She needed to choose her words wisely. There were different ranks of demons, the rogue ones that nobody cared for and they were the ones Yura killed in the past... They were weaker than any demons but stronger than any human.

And then there was the civilian who had many different jobs, jobs humans once did in their past glory... that no longer exist in this century. After them came the prestigious soldier and politician who were below the king in social status. While they, the humans, were the sheeps, cattle of this society except they didn't need to be fed, if they wanted to survive they needed to save themselves. Despite the fact that they were the extra baggage, they had their use but animals still were better than them. So with that in mind, if a human, so lowly in their circle killed someone as high as a soldier... If the king found out there was someone with the ability to harm demons... to kill them... No, that wasn't even an issue. What were the odds they might think someone as defenseless as a human would be able to harm one of them? She shivered, dismissing such horrible thought. She prayed they think it was a dispute between them.

"Kana."

Unless they figured out that there was an exorcist between them. If they did then Yura would be hunted down by EVERYONE including her own people if they put a bounty under her head.

"Kana?"

Even that would be a mercy if all they did was kill her. It would be a different story entirely if they found out she was a Keika- no, no, no, Yura was an Ienaga. She was an Ienaga. Nothing anybody would say would make her otherwise. If she said that accursed clan name, she was afraid it might jinx Yura .

"an- KANA!" Yura's violent shake startled her. Her fearful eyes stared at her in the absolute form of shock with the way her round eyes got bigger and her mouth hung open. She wasn't shocked, she was scared, terrified out of the possible outcome.

"Why are you crying?" It took Yura spelling it out for her to realize how wet her cheeks were. From where did they come?

"B-but Yura, wha-" Yura patted her head, as she choked out from her own tears.

"Calm down." Yura soothing voice and usual placid expression had her panic diminish. How could she be so calm? She was the younger one so why wasn't she afraid? Yura seemed to always save the day with her intelligence and strength, always. Why wasn't she more like her? The more she compared herself to Yura, the more insignificant she felt. If she was the damsel in distress who hindered everyone, then Yura was the knight who saved the day.

"Calm down," she repeated, although this time it seemed more to herself than to Kana. "Because..."

Yura crouched down beside her. "I regret it," Yura mumbled, her fingers trailed on the rough texture of soil, making slow scribbled lines all over. They were more interesting to look at than her sister's reaction. Just then a white dot fell above her ring finger so she looked up at the sky to see a shower of snowflakes. The weather was too chilly so she wasn't surprised by this discovery since she could barely hear any sign of life from animals these past few days.

"I regret it." This time it was more loud so Kana could hear it. "Saving her life was a mistake. I didn't realize I was wrong until now."

She wondered how ridiculous she sounded right now. Reality was cruel, cruel enough to make her wish she didn't help out others. There was no such thing as what goes around comes around when it came to kind gestures. Kindness didn't get repaid with equal kindness, no, it got repaid with sacrifice. Only a foolish human like her would think of jumping to someone's rescue.

"... So who was the emergency supply?" Kana finished one pair of sandals so far, thus she started working on the other one immediately to distract herself so Yura didn't regret it. The one thing Yura was good at was taking responsibility of her actions and didn't care if she died in the process so for her to say that worried her. She stopped for a brief second to warm her hands with her breath and rubbed her feet together to create a heat friction. It was too cold for them to have this conversation here but this was the forest... Nobody would be listening. Everyone considered the forest a much greater danger here than starvation and diseases. It was suicide to be here but thanks to winter, there are no wild animals around... Just lurking demons. Kana herself hated coming here. The one person who visited the forest often is Yura and Kana felt safe when she was with her, thus tagging along is something she did on a few, very few occasions.

"A pregnant woman," Yura muttered, her anger was hardly apparent on her face but if anyone knew her more personally, they would know her small actions provide her emotions. She was prodding the soil with more aggression than before even when she seemed calm.

Kana tried to resist another wave of upcoming tears. The current king was cruel. His people called him a genius...but he was horrible. He was worse than the anything in this world. She knew winter had it's disadvantages, she knew it first-hand, but to do what he did was something no men ever did or would do. If there was one thing humans had an upper hand in in war, it would be their numbers. They easily outnumbered the them, however the demons had a natural advantage by being 10 times stronger than them. However, in seasons, most humans AND demons didn't wage war or try to make use of any weakness during such blizzards and weather. Because in other seasons like spring, summer, and fall they could feed their soldiers food from their surroundings. Eating fruits, animals, plants. In winter, fruits and plants withered, animals hibernated, bodies gave in to the harsh weather... However, their current king turned that disadvantage into their BIGGEST advantage yet because the demons kept bringing humans along to eat them alive! Thanks to that, they won a war by their surprise ambush and one of their biggest victories was taking over Joseon and now they wanted to invade Qing too. She felt herself shake and had to sharply inhale to breathe.

She wanted to chide Yura, tell her how she had let those ones in the emergency supply die but she couldn't. It wa as if a lump was stuck on her throat, stopping her from making brutal remarks.

"Yura... you did the right thing," she choked out, wiping out the existing tears.

Yura's eyes widened, take off guard by the small but meaningful words. To others it may mean nothing but to her this was what she wanted to hear the most. "What if they kill us?"

Never in her life did Yura sound so insecure, so weak.

"I'm sure mother wouldn't mind." For a brief moment Kana felt glad. For once, she was the older sister not her younger one. For once, Yura needed her guidance. For once, Yura cried.

"I... I d-do-on't w-w-want you or ma-mothe-ther to di-e-e" Tears trailed down from the corner of her eyes to the tip of her nose, dripping on the ground. It was painful for her. If she had to die, she should die alone. She didn't want to drag anyone down with her, especially not the kind family that took her in when she was a young child and raised her to adulthood.

Kana only placed a hand on her shoulders, squeezing her in comfort. She was here for Yura and Yura was there for her. The two sisters used this chance to pour out all their heart out for the next 10 minutes. Even when all tears faded away, they still kept quiet, no words were needed after that. Just silence as Kana continued her work in making shoes. It took her the final touch of the straw to start speaking.

"Done." Kana handed the other shoe to Yura to cover her other foot. She started to pack whatever remained from the straws and dirty clothes to bring home with her. This was a long day, both emotionally and physically.

"Kana..." Yura tilted her head as slipped on the ice cold straw on the back of her ankle. "Have you been getting.. those visions lately?"

At the mention of her ability to see the future, Kana froze halfway, making her seem like she was about to crouch back down. She pushed herself by standing and dusted her kimono as casually as she could since it wasn't a big deal... Not yet "I only get it twice a year so I don't know why I haven't been getting it at all this year."

She lied, trying to keep her composure calm. It wasn't a complete lie considering she got a vision today. Few hours before meeting Yura. She closed her eyes tightly when she was reminded of it again.

A young woman fell to the ground, scraping her skin from the force of being pushed to kneel. Her arms hovered behind her, wrapped by a rope that was held by a man...he didn't look human.

Her face was hidden from the view but her brown hair and rugged, black kimono were too familiar to not be recognizable. She then screamed to the man in front of her, her rage lifting with her head. "Let's trade! In exchange for my life, why don't you take my mother's instead?"

She felt like all her composure was about to break any second now. Rendering almost all the struggles of keeping it together useless. Kana didn't want to remember that awful vision again. Why wouldn't it leave her? She wanted to forget it! She had to forget it or else she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Kana felt like screaming her heart out in pure anguish and disgust with herself. But she held it in. Yura shouldn't suspect a thing. Kana wanted to pretend she had some dignity because she would never do this to anyone in her family... She didn't want her to think she would so why was her ability lying to her? Tormenting her this way? She would never do this to her precious people! STOP LYING TO HER!

Kana bit her lips and clenched the blood stained kimono of Yura's. Her mind was in turmoil again. She would protect Yura and her mother like they would protect her... Or at least that was what she wished she would do.

It took all the strength she had to peek at Yura for a second. Her face was placid again making her nervous. Did she see through her lie? Or not? Her cheeks throbbed in pain, reminding her that her heart was beating fast. Beating fast because of guilt.

"Let me know if you did," Yura muttered, also standing up to walk home.

Kana watched her move further away following behind her like her shadow. Deep down, Kana knew her sister suspected her of hiding the truth. She always did. Yura was intelligent but extremely kind, selfless and was more likely to believe her innocence if she told her. But how could she tell her when Kana herself was doubting herself?

No matter what she thought, nobody should hear or know a word about this. Not her mother, Yura or anyone. She would take this vision with her to the grave. She would prove it wrong. For the day would come soon, perhaps way too soon where her loyalty would be put to test.

Author Note: Thank you guys so much for the lovely reviews. They brightened my day. I actually read them in December (very late considering I posted it on Aug.) and muahahaha you guys know me too well. If you guys are still alive, I would love to thank you and answer all your questions. You reviews were really sweet! I didn't expect to get this many reviews or did I expect someone to still comment about it. I thought it would be dead (rightfully so) so THANK YOU!

Also, Cloud Vanguard is the best! She once again did me the favor of beta-ing this for me.