"She's dead. That human girl of yours is dead," Kimiko hissed as everyone in the room gaped at her.

"You're lying," Haku snarled. "She was alive only a couple of months ago."

Kimiko brought her face close to Haku's, keeping only enough distance so he couldn't bite of her head. She caressed the underside of his chin with one sharp nail as she gazed him in the eyes. "I believe you've forgotten how fragile and short a human's lifespan can be, Kohaku. As of yesterday, that human girl is no longer alive."

"I don't believe you. You did something to her- why else would those two be here?" Haku shouted, struggling under Yachiru's strong grip. Ryuu whimpered in the corner as he listened to their fight. He couldn't believe his ears- his nee-chan was dead? That onee-chan said she was back home. Nee-chan can't be dead! Ryuu thought frantically as he tightened his grip on Emiko to muffle the baby's cries into his chest. Nee-chan, where are you? I don't wanna be here anymore!

"Those two are alive because of me," Kimiko snapped. She strode over to Ryuu and the boy let out a small shriek as she lifted him by the collar of his shirt. She no longer needed him on her good side; the game has now been changed and she's going to make good use of it. "I saved these pathetic humans' lives when they were on the verge of death."

"Onee-sama! Let go of him, you're hurting the boy," Yachiru cried out as Ryuu struggled to gasp for air. But Yachiru's cry only made Kimiko more malevolent. She wrenched the baby out of Ryuu's arms and tucked Emiko underneath her arm. Meanwhile, she let go of the collar of Ryuu's shirt, letting him fall to the ground.

"Wahh!" Ryuu cried out and right before his head could hit the floor, Yanagi's hands caught him and the boy landed safely in his arms. Ryuu sobbed into Yanagi's robes as the dragon glared up at his sister.

Yanagi rose to his feet, towering a good two heads taller than Kimiko. Their blue eyes met each other. "Is this the way you treat weakened children, Kimiko? I thought better of you." Ryuu sobbed into Yanagi's chest and the dragon awkwardly patted the boy's head. "You better have a good explanation for all of these. Bringing humans here, are you trying to get them killed?"

"K-killed?" Hiro stammered from where he stood. His scrawny legs trembled and gave away. His face was extremely pale, and all the bruises that covered his face and body became more apparent as the blood drained away. "Y-you said you would protect us, oujo-sama."

"I know perfectly well what I am doing, Yanagi," Kimiko snapped. She cradled Emiko and placed the bottle of milk back in the baby's mouth, soothing her. "If they're here as my servants and their identity as humans aren't found out, then no one can touch them. Not when they're mine. So I do hope that you don't tell anyone," she added with a smirk and it took all of Yanagi's willpower not to punch her.

"Why would you care?" Haku asked quietly from where Yachiru still had him pinned down on the floor. He had reverted to his human form and he looked at her with contempt from where he lay.

Kimiko spun on the balls of her feet to face him, her hair a black curtain around her figure. She walked back to Haku and knelt on the floor, allowing him a good view of the baby Emiko. "Even I have a heart, dear Kohaku. I couldn't just ignore that puny human's last words now, can I?"

Haku gnashed his teeth together but made no attempt to move. He needed to find out what exactly was happening here. Kimiko loved to lie and play with people's emotions; no doubt she was playing with him right now. It was all a game to her. But she wasn't entirely heartless. He knew that much about her, she has her own problems, too. So he let her continue speaking.

"On our way here to Aburaya, I made the carriage stop. Can you guess where, Kohaku?" Kimiko asked.

"The tunnel, I suppose?" Haku bit out as everyone listened to what this deceptive dragon woman had to say.

"Yes, you're correct. It was strange, it felt as if it were calling for me," Kimiko said, her blue eyes looking somewhere in the distance and Haku had to agree with that. Whenever he was near the tunnel, even before Chihiro had even came, Haku could feel the wind tugging at his clothes, urging him to go through that breach and see the world on the other side. It would be tempting to any of his siblings, actually, to finally see the world that their Father was exiled in. "I couldn't resist it, the curiosity was overwhelming; before I knew it, I was at the foot of the tunnel and walking in darkness."

"That's impossible," Haku interrupted. Kimiko glared at him for interrupting but he continued to talk. "I tried going through that tunnel many times and if I so much took a single step into that darkness, I would be sent flying out. How could I believe that you weren't affected by the curse that Yubaba placed on that breach?"

Kimiko gave him a dark look and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up at her. Yachiru couldn't do anything as her older sister held Haku's face painfully tight, her sharp nails digging into his nails. "Who was it that said that it didn't affect me at all?" She tugged the collar of her robes down to reveal black and purple splotches around the area of her heart. "I didn't realize it until after I returned from the human world. It was rather suffocating; I could actually feel my heart slowing and the cold stiffness settling into my body but luckily, I'm quite adept at manipulating curses like these, no? If I weren't, then that human's siblings would be dead as well."

"What happened there?" Yanagi asked quietly. Ryuu's sobs finally melted into soft whimpers and he listened, trying to understand all of the words these adults were saying. A lot of things were confusing to him: curses, tunnels, last words? The only thing that was clear to Ryuu was the fact that he was related to this story somehow, and so was his nee-chan.

Kimiko scoffed in amusement. "It looks like you're all listening to me rather than pinning me against the wall."

"Don't test us," Haku began to say but Yachiru hit the back of his head with her palm, effectively shutting him up.

"Just continue with your story, onee-sama," the green-haired dragon girl urged. Even her interest was piqued; Kimiko, of all spirits, actually went to the human world. It was so strange and peculiar yet it didn't surprise Yachiru at all. When they were younger, Kimiko would always talk about the humans she would hear through her lake in the human world, and she would speak with the most awe-filled blue eyes Yachiru had ever seen. Of course that all changed ever since their Father betrayed them for the humans and everyone in the spirit world became hostile to anything human related.

All ears were tuned to her voice and listened with such attentiveness that they didn't notice the speck of a carriage that appeared in the far off horizon, slowly approaching the bathhouse. "For a long time, all around me was darkness," Kimiko murmured as she caressed Emiko's soft hair. "And suddenly, I was in brightness. I was standing in a forest of green trees with a blue sky still arching above head. Only the air was foul from the pollution there. I stood there for a while and right when I decided to return to the tunnel, I heard it. A weak voice calling out to me. I followed the direction of the voice and at the bottom of the cliff I stood at was a scrawny girl with ragged hair, ragged clothes, ragged everything."

Haku inhaled sharply at Kimiko's image. He could see it in his mind as well, as if he were standing on that same cliff, looking down on the beaten Chihiro.

"Her face was so pale and thin. She was badly bruised, as if someone had beaten her."

Yachiru released Haku at this moment as she brought her hands to her mouth. Haku sat up and stared at the floor as he imagined everything Kimiko told him. What had happened to Chihiro in the short weeks he had stopped checking on her? He should've known that something terrible had happened when he last saw her!

"The girl told me she had no home to go to, only a nightmare of a relative that would beat her day in and day out. She was crying; she was waiting for a certain spirit to come back and save her," Kimiko said, glancing at Haku.

The dragon's heart nearly stopped as he heard this. Chihiro was waiting for him? How long had she waited, endured those beatings before she finally left that house? What happened to her parents, why weren't they there protecting her from that devil of a relative? All kinds of thoughts surged through Haku as he clenched his fists, his body trembling with anger. He was angry? At who? The person who beated Chihiro? Kimiko for not bringing Chihiro here? No, Haku realized. I'm angry at myself for not saving her.

Everyone watched Haku as he shook, his whole being radiating with silent fury and another emotion that they couldn't put a finger on. Was it sadness? Yanagi shut his eyes tightly and held Ryuu even closer to him as he recalled this emotion. He hadn't felt it in such a long time. Not since his Father was exiled. And it surprised him; he had no connection to this human girl named Chihiro but the despair that Haku emitted affected Yanagi as well. It was unnerving. How could humans stand being so vulnerable to things like emotions? It was better not to get attached to anyone like Haku did with this human.

A single tear escaped Yachiru's eyes as she watched her younger brother hit the floor with such force that the walls rattled and the seashells hanging from the walls fell with a clattering sound. She's never seen Haku so...exposed. The incident at Zeniba's was nothing to the rage and fury Yachiru had witnessed when she and Yanagi raced into the suite. No wonder there was so much yelling; it was about Chihiro. Dear, sweet Chihiro who had captured Haku's heart.

Kimiko gazed at Haku with a passive look. Seeing such an honest display of emotions on a dragon prince didn't settle with her yet she felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. This was what she was looking for, unexpected things like Haku's sadness. It was so amusing to see this turn of events that she wasn't upset at all that her original plans were altered. Of course she was not happy that Haku strangled her but to have a new twist to her game was nearly worth it.

"What happened to Chihiro after you found her?" Haku finally managed to say, barely keeping his voice from trembling with the rage he felt pulsating through his veins. "Why isn't she here with her siblings?"

"They were in such poor shape when I found them so I did what I could to at least give them some treatment and proper medication. Ryuu and Emiko were feeling rather ill, and Chihiro's foot had twisted," Kimiko answered. She looked around the room for a moment before reaching out and taking one of the fallen seashells. She carefully placed Emiko into Yachiru's arms before whirling her sharp nails over the seashell. She murmured some ancient words underneath her breath before Kimiko managed to produce a purple light that engulfed everyone in the room. Suddenly, they were no longer in the bathhouse but instead, at the mouth of a tunnel. Another Kimiko stood before them, holding both an unconscious Ryuu and Emiko in her arms. Beside the other Kimiko was a the scrawny Chihiro who was leaning heavily against the dragon woman's shoulder for support.

"Will this really work? I've tried to go through the tunnel so many times but each time, I couldn't go through," Chihiro said weakly to the other Kimiko who gave the human a haughty look.

"Don't underestimate my power. I'm a rather strong spirit," the dragon woman scoffed as she helped the human take another step into the tunnel. Chihiro let out a weak laugh but that was it.

Haku watched as Chihiro struggled with each step into the darkness and even though he knew it was only an illusion, he reached out a hand out to grab her arm. When his hand went through Chihiro, he drew it back with a gasp. He gripped his hand and continued to watch.

"We're almost to the other side, there, you see that light?" Kimiko said as brightness began to fill the dark tunnel.

Chihiro nodded before laughing to herself again. "It's so strange. My people always tell me not to go to the light at the end of the tunnel."

Kimiko narrowed her brows at this. "Why is that?"

"It normally means I'm dying. Or more correctly, that I am dead-ah!" Chihiro cried as her grip on Kimiko's shoulder failed her and she fell on the ground. They were only a few steps away from the end of the tunnel, too. "My ankle," the girl gasped and Kimiko knelt down to help her up.

"You're rather clumsy. It's no wonder that I found you at the bottom of a cliff," the dragon woman retorted as she extended her hand to the girl.

Chihiro was about to grab hold of it when her body began to tremble violently. "Ahhh!" she screamed as a blinding pain seared through her thin body. A bright light started to come out of her eyes, making Kimiko freeze at the sight.

"What is this?" Kimiko exclaimed as she started to feel a numbing pain in her chest. "Ughh…" she groaned, placing a hand over her heart, careful not to drop Emiko who was draped over her shoulder. She muttered a few words and a purple light engulfed her body and the children she carried, stopping the pain she felt. Kimiko quickly looked over at Chihiro whose body was practically emitting blinding light. "Chihiro!"

"Please..!" Chihiro gasped as she coughed out blood. "Take care of my brother and sister. Tell Haku that I-"

The rest of her words were caught off as the blinding light fully engulfed her and a second later, the light vanished. So did Chihiro. The only thing left behind was the purple hair tie which floated in midair and landed in the palm of Kimiko's outstretched hand. The scene disappeared and everyone was back in Kimiko's room at the bathhouse.

Ryuu blinked at the change of scene before everything registered in his mind. "Nee-chan...is dead?" he said in a small voice as Kimiko discarded the seashell on the floor. She crossed her arms as she looked down on Haku who couldn't shake off his shock. Chihiro was gone from the world literally in the blink of an eye.

"Chihiro…" Haku said with a shaky breath. Yachiru reached out to pat his shoulder but he slapped his away. "Don't touch me," he snarled and his sister immediately drew back.

"Do you believe me now, Kohaku? I was entrusted these children," Kimiko said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'll make sure that they won't be harmed by Grandfather or anyone."

Haku didn't say anything and Yanagi couldn't blame his brother. Chihiro really did meet death from light at the end of the tunnel. And she was going to say something to Haku. What was it? What did she try to say? Yanagi hugged Ryuu as the little boy sobbed into his arms. "Nee-chan's dead... I want my nee-chan back." He patted the boy's back in a soothing rhythm.

"Will you three cooperate with me then?" Kimiko asked her younger siblings. "Just make everyone believe that they're my slaves for now. It's the only way that they'll be kept alive here."

"...I'll do anything," Haku finally said in a low voice, his emerald eyes dulling to a jaded color. He raised his head to look at Kimiko with a serious face. "Anything for Chihiro."

Author's Note:

I UPDATED TWO DAYS IN A ROW! HAHA, BE PROUD! Although some of you may be hating me at what happened so far, eheh