I do not own Vocaloid or any of the properties thereof. Miku Hatsune and other characters are the property of their respective owners.

…But the story is totally mine.

********************************Chapter 25***********************************

"I hadn't killed anyone… yet" said Luka, her gaze still unflinchingly locked on Miku.

Miku faltered momentarily. "You…"

"Miku, I did not come to be called 'The Legendary Assassin' by letting people live." Her eyes did not waver. "Surely even though I've never said anything you must have surmised…"

"I… I had wondered…" Miku said, swallowing nervously. "I guess I just… mostly I just tried not to think about it. Maybe it was just a t-title, you know?" she smiled sheepishly. Luka's iron gaze sobered her up immediately. "H-how many?" she asked.

"Too many" replied Luka solemnly. "Far too many. I…"

Luka fumbled for a moment, searching for the right words. "I have to make this clear, Miku: I was a very different person then, and I've lived with it since. I'll tell you again that you might not necessarily find the things I tell you entirely… palatable."

Miku mulled that over quietly. "Still…" she said, breaking eye contact and casting her gaze to the floor. "I… I feel like I have to…"

"I understand" Luka replied. "I owe you at least this much." She straightened up, seeming to steel herself for what she was about to say.

"You don't just become what I became overnight. It took something terrible. Something that made me lose hope. I killed many but the first… the first was the one I loved most."

****************************Lucentia, 13 years earlier*****************************

The hallways of the Kamui estate were dark and silent as Luka walked slowly through. She was in a curious mood. Part of her wondered at the late time that Gakupo had chosen to summon her, but a part of her that she was trying desperately to ignore felt that it already knew the reason.

It didn't take a genius to notice that the man's illness had worsened as of late. This recent bout of malaise was the worst she had seen in him. In years past, he'd sometimes be laid up for two or three weeks at a time, but each time he would recover, and return to his work, albeit slightly slower than before.

This time, however… it had been nearly two months with no improvement. Luka was beginning to wonder what exactly they were paying these live-in nurses for. Surely it wasn't this difficult to cure someone...

...Right?

She sighed, unable to continue fooling herself. It had become obvious that Gakupo was living on borrowed time, and most likely would have already lost his fight if not for his substantial wealth. Every time she saw him he looked just slightly worse than the previous day, a slow and insidious downward spiral that steadily reduced the man she loved as a father to nothing but a husk of his former self.

Despite her musings Luka did not linger when she reached the doorway to Gakupo's chambers, pulling open the door and stepping inside.

A hospital bed was situated near the far window of the room, several machines standing adjacent. The addition of said bed in the corner of the room did little to change the overall design of the admittedly large space but, to Luka, the entire place now felt strange and alien, as if someone unfamiliar now lived here rather than the cheerful father figure she had come to expect.

The man in question was currently sitting propped up, the head of his sickbed raised. Upon hearing Luka enter the room he turned his head (clearly a great effort on his part) and, seeing her face, managed a weak smile. Though the gesture was obviously meant to put her at ease, Luka could not help but shudder inwardly. No matter the number of times she had seen him in the last two months, she would never get used to Gakupo in this state.

His once slender yet powerful frame was now hardly more than skin and bones. Ever fashionable, Gakupo's lilac-colored hospital gown hung loosely on his gaunt shoulders as though he were more coat hanger than man.

His once-luxurious head of lavender hair was now thin and wispy, with many streaks of grey throughout. Gakupo couldn't have been considered a young man, even when he had first taken Luka in, but now, for the first time, Luka thought he looked old. His bouts of illness had aged him prematurely, leaving him in a degraded state, and robbing him of his years.

His live-in nurse, Cecilia, stood near the machines at his bedside, examining the readouts and checking them against similar figures on a clipboard she carried.

The woman had been an old friend of Gakupo's from earlier in his life, and had acted as his caregiver on and off for many years. Beautiful in her youth, she had maintained a definite air of grace into middle-age, and was still very attractive at over 50. Luka had wondered for many years why on earth Gakupo hadn't ever pursued her romantically. Luka wasn't well-acquainted with the woman herself, but knew that Gakupo considered her a close family friend.

"I've told you for years that you should take your condition more seriously and look where it's gotten you now" she chastised, her tone very clearly saying 'I told you so.'

"The indiscretions of one's youth do take their toll" Gakupo replied, making no attempt to disagree with her.

The sliding door made a soft click as Luka shut it, and Cecilia looked around at the sound. Luka, expecting her usual smile and greeting, was instead confused when the color suddenly drained from her face and she donned an expression of mild shock. Slowly she redirected her gaze back to the man in the bed, and Luka caught a soft, single word. A question:

"Tonight?"

Gakupo nodded in affirmation, but to what Luka could not say. Cecilia looked back to Luka quickly, then back to Gakupo, her expression hardening. "Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you. You're a fool, Gakupo Kamui."

Depositing her clipboard on top of one of the machines rather more forcefully than Luka thought necessary, she briskly walked across the room to the door and made a hasty exit, stopping only momentarily to offer a whispered "I'm so sorry" to Luka as she passed. She wasn't certain, but Luka could have sworn she caught the slightest trace of moisture at the corner of the woman's eyes.

Bewildered, Luka turned back to Gakupo, who still held the same calm smile as when she had entered, though it no longer reached his eyes. Left alone with the man, Luka was now overcome by a strange feeling of dread. Something was amiss, though she could not say what.

"W-what-" She began.

"I am dying, Luka" Gakupo interrupted her, doing away with pretense in his strained hoarse voice. Luka had always known her father to be anything but a man of few words, speaking long and preferring metaphor to metonymy; hearing him speak so directly unnerved her.

"Sooner rather than later, if Cecilia's assertions are correct" he continued, ignoring her growing trepidation. "I have no reason to doubt her, and frankly I am thankful for her candor."

Luka remained silent. She was too stunned to speak, and it was clear that Gakupo had more to say.

"You're wondering why I called you here. You aren't naive enough to have not realized this yourself, after all. You and your sister are the executors of my estate, as I'm sure you're aware, and I trust you to make sound judgements on that front." Gakupo's smile had left him at this point. "I have laid out the specifics quite clearly in my will and I'm confident that the research organizations I helped create will continue to operate into the future and yet… there is still one more thing I must attend to."

Here he faltered, seemingly unsure how to proceed. He motioned to a chair placed at his bedside, indicating that Luka should sit. She sat, facing him. Gakupo smiled once again, genuine emotion showing on his face this time. "Luka… my sweet daughter" he said, reaching slowly, laboriously out with one hand. Luka took it in her own. "You have made this old man happier than you can know. I never dreamed that I could be blessed with such an honor as having a child, let alone two as wonderful as your sister and yourself."

His smile slowly disappeared as he regarded her. "I only wish I was more deserving of your love. Alas, in the end, I may fall short of such things."

Alarm bells were sounding in Luka's mind as Gakupo continued. It was as though the man were working himself towards something, steeling himself with each word. Her mind raced, sent into a tailspin by her father's sudden and terrible declarations.

"My earthly affairs are in order. There is nothing more to be done. And yet my spirit is in turmoil."

A strange thought suddenly pushed its way to the front of Luka's mind. Haku, for all that Gakupo had mentioned her, was strangely absent. She did not know why, but this revelation unnerved her even more.

"You're wondering where your sister is, aren't you?" Gakupo asked abruptly, shocking Luka back to reality as her thoughts were echoed. His smile did not return, but his expression softened as he regarded her. "Don't be surprised. It's obvious that you're confused as to why I would not also have her present."

He sighed. "I fear that she would not understand."

Finally finding her voice Luka managed: "understand what?"

"For all of her wonderful qualities there are certain things that your sister simply cannot understand. She is tenacious, doggedly determined, and unerringly compassionate, but she cannot and will not do what I must ask of you now."

With what appeared to be a supreme effort Gakupo bent to the side and grasped something leaning on his bedside. As he straightened back up, bringing the object with him, Luka saw that it was the ornate sheath that held his most precious possession: his sword. He took as deep a breath as he was able to, and with one swift motion unsheathed the blade and declared:

"I wish to die a warrior's death."

Luka was stunned. The world seemed to stop. Her mind had ceased processing what was occurring in front of her. In all her life not once had she ever seen Gakupo's blade. She knew well the circumstances in which such an act was permissible, and it terrified her to no end.

"I have grown weak and feeble" Gakupo spoke again, his voice forcing her back to the present. "I can wield this blade no longer and every minute that passes with it still in my possession is a dishonor to everything it stands for."

He fixed her with a resolute gaze.

"It now passes to you, that its legacy may be upheld."

He offered the blade forward. Numbly, slowly, Luka closed her hand around the hilt. It was perfectly balanced, obviously a masterwork product of an expert craftsman. Etched into one side of the blade, in a flowing script, was the word Castis, meaning punishment, and on the opposite was Yurua: forgiveness.

The steel seemed to flow like water in a wave pattern down the length of the blade, and its edge was honed to a deadly sharpness. The weapon was beautiful and dangerous. Refined, like the man who wielded it.

Having trouble believing what was occurring, Luka raised her eyes to meet Gakupo's again. He seemed satisfied, and yet strangely sad. His eyes were serious, and they hinted at something else bothering him.

"You're… giving this to me?" She finally managed, in a hoarse voice.

"Indeed." He replied. He faltered momentarily. "And I must ask something in return."

Luka didn't know why, but she didn't like the way that Gakupo said that. Nevertheless, she responded with:

"O-of course, anything you need"

Drawing a single steadying breath, Gakupo fixed Luka with a steely gaze and said again:

"I wish to die a warrior's death."

Luka's blood ran cold. She didn't dare to believe it, but yet she knew in her heart what Gakupo was asking her to do.

"No…" she said breathlessly. "Y-you can't mean-"

"I do." he said, interrupting her.

Several tense seconds of silence passed between them. Luka's mind raced, and yet she could barely form a coherent thought. It was too much. Too sudden. This couldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening. She couldn't do it, couldn't handle it. She-

"Luka" came Gakupo's voice, soft, gentle, and yet cutting through her thoughts as effectively as any sword could cut through flesh.

She came back to herself, somehow forcing herself to once again meet her father's eyes.

"My daughter." he said gently. "I can express to you neither how much I love you, nor how much it pains me to place this burden upon you."

He closed his eyes, and Luka could tell that he was trying his hardest to hold back tears, to be strong, like he always was.

"But I know that my time is up." He continued. "I know what is killing me and I know how it will end. If allowed to, my body will waste away into nothingness. Slowly. Painfully. I will be naught but a burden to you and your sister. Already my muscles betray me. I cannot stand. I cannot walk. I cannot wield a sword or continue my life's work. I can't even care for my children-"

At last Gakupo's facade broke and he gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears threatening to spill over.

"This is not a warrior's existence. This is not an honorable existence. And thus I choose a warrior's death."

He slowly turned his head to the side, his gaze falling upon the machine that was administering morphine to him.

"Or at the very least, the most honorable end still afforded to me."

Luka noted his intentions, her eyes coming to rest on the dosage control buttons. For a moment, nothing existed except the machine. She stared at it. It didn't seem real. It appeared to her in that moment as some sort of apparition: incorporeal, incomprehensible. And yet it simultaneously stood before her as the only remaining thing that was real.

She had not realized it, but she was standing. Not only standing but moving. Not only moving, but embracing the man in the bed in front of her. Not only embracing, but sobbing.

For a time the room was quiet save for Luka's pained cries as she held onto Gakupo as the situation became real for the first time since she had stepped into the room. Gakupo said nothing, only comforted her as well as he was able, ignoring the pain he was in for her sake.

After what seemed like hours, but in fact was more likely to have been minutes, Luka fell, rather than sat, back into the chair she had risen from. She held her face in her hands. It couldn't happen. And yet she knew that it must. There was no request that she could deny to the man in front of her, to whom she owed her happiness.

Could she refuse this to him when it was obviously only she who he trusted to carry out the task? Could she refuse the wishes of a dying man? Of her dying father? Simply for her own peace of mind?

Gakupo had been right. Haku would have been incapable of it. She was too kind and too determined. Such a thing was against her very nature.

The act itself was not a difficult or meaningful one, a few simple presses of a button; And yet it felt practically Sisyphean. She raised her eyes.

The spectre loomed. Solidifying now into a brutally mundane object. It felt empty, as if somehow such a device should be more significant somehow. That it should somehow match the significance of what it represented to her. Her eyes silently begged for something, anything to latch onto.

It offered her nothing.

~V~

The room was silent and dark. It was the dead of night. In a single hospital bed lay a man who did not move. In a chair nearby sat a woman who did not move.

The woman, at least, was breathing.

~V~

Luka was weeping softly. It was clear to Miku that her recounting of Gakupo's death, and the part she had played in it, was extremely difficult for her.

"That's… it's… ah…" Miku started lamely, failing to find the right words. She always found it hard to know what to say when people were crying, and this situation was rather more awkward than any she had encountered previously. The dark tale that Luka had just relayed to her was macabre at best. What was she supposed to say? It was obviously not something that Luka had come to terms with and any offering she could think of seemed woefully lacking.

"It's monstrous" Luka said, her eyes hateful and full of self-loathing.

"Hey…" Miku tried again, putting a hand lightly on Luka's shoulder. "That's definitely… a lot. But it doesn't make you a monster." Miku couldn't imagine the position Luka would have been in. Asked by her own father to end his life. He was clearly suffering immensely, but to have to kill someone you love so dearly? How could Luka accept? How could she refuse? It was an impossible choice.

"No, it doesn't" Luka agreed, surprising Miku. "But that wasn't what I meant. Gakupo was dying and in pain. I couldn't bear to see my father in that state, and as sick as it made me feel, I knew that I had only one choice, however horrible. What is monstrous is what I did because of it."

Miku had a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Luka brought her head up to look at Miku, and though her eyes were red and her cheeks tearstained, she was no longer crying. Instead there was a look of rage on Luka's face as she continued.

"What is monstrous is what I used that act to justify!" she said. "I promised that I would tell you everything, Miku. I can only hope now that you show me what mercy you can."

Miku was legitimately frightened by the expression on Luka's face as she spoke. Simultaneously depressed and furious, the face before her was a twisted facsimile of her mentor.

"I did hardly anything for an entire month after that night. Each day was a blur for me, bringing nothing but more pain and suffering. I shut out everything and everyone. I sat in the dark and stewed in my thoughts until I thought I would go mad. I was barely able to eat. I slept either for days or not at all. I held onto Gakupo's sword like a lifeline, carrying it everywhere I went. Finally, it got so bad that I felt like I would die if I didn't do something to distract myself. So I took the highest profile mark I could and left. For the first time since we had become eto varu I didn't go with Haku. I didn't even tell her. I just… left. I barely even read the listing. It didn't matter to me. All I knew was that it was the hardest job available."

Luka's face returned somewhat to normal, melancholy once again winning out over anger. "I ran on autopilot. I tracked my mark relentlessly for 3 days without rest. And when I found them, I even announced my presence. I didn't care about the danger. I wasn't thinking of the consequences. I wasn't thinking at all. I was just… broken. Perhaps I was hoping they would kill me, I can't say."

Luka's eyes looked haunted. "It went very badly. They were a vocaloid of some skill and I wasn't thinking clearly. The fight was brutal. I didn't sustain any injuries as bad as when we had fought Kazuki but there was plenty of collateral damage. And yet as I was fighting… something changed. For the first time I was able to forget the pain. I felt a primal rush like I'd never felt before and I willingly drowned myself in it. I didn't think, I just fought… and I won."

She sucked in a breath. "But winning wasn't enough. I wasn't done fighting, wasn't ready to go back into the darkness that had consumed me for so long. I was so lost in the exhilaration of it all and I just… didn't stop. I couldn't stop. I lost control of myself completely."

"I realized far too late what I had done. They were dead. I had broken my promise to Haku without so much as a thought."

Luka's expression hardened. "And I reveled in it. I hadn't just killed them. I had enjoyed it. I felt sick and yet for an instant I was free. All of the despair and the darkness vanished and I was just… numb. There was a blessed silence in my mind for the first time in weeks and it didn't matter that it was because of the shock. I preferred feeling anything else."

Miku listened with horrible curiosity as Luka continued, her face inscrutable. She was speaking as if the words she was saying were just information to be relayed. Of no more importance than reading a menu or a billboard. But Miku saw in her eyes that her mind was somewhere else. In her eyes Miku could see that Luka wasn't simply speaking of these things but living them again as though it were still happening.

"And yet as the shock wore off and the reality of it sank in I knew what I had done. And it was with the biggest shock of all that I realized I didn't even care. All I cared about was that for just a brief moment, the pain had stopped."

Luka suddenly seemed to come back to herself, her eyes refocusing. She looked at Miku sadly. "In time I found other ways to dull that pain. Haku and I had garnered considerable status by that point and I drowned myself in it. I pursued every base pleasure and vice I could just for some excuse to feel anything other than what I knew was lurking just beneath the surface. And though I surrounded myself with alcohol, drugs, escorts and the like there was still one thing that cut through the fog like nothing else."

"There was no shortage of marks that were considered dangerous. And among those there were plenty that were wanted dead or alive." Luka's eyes again took on a faraway look as she recalled. "If dead was an option, they died."

She refocused on Miku only a moment later, however, forcing herself back to reality. "There was a monster inside of me, just waiting for its chance to break free… and I let it out willingly. I learned things about myself that should have horrified me, but I was too lost to care. How many were wrong? How many were truly guilty? How many actually deserved what I did to them? A select few? Certainly. Most? Wishful thinking.

...All?" Luka paused, her tearstained face wretched with guilt. "Absolutely not."

Miku felt as though there was a rock in the pit of her stomach, a hard, dense ball of uneasiness and disgust. Everything before her seemed so wrong. The Luka before her certainly didn't seem like the infallible goddess that she had idolized months before. She seemed small, sad, and angry. She seemed a lot like the despondent little girl clutching the side of a concrete bridge in a rainstorm from years ago.

And yet, Miku knew of the monster that Luka had spoken of. She had glimpsed it the previous night in Clonderwell. A violet-eyed shadow against a backdrop of flame. That monster was alive and well in the woman in front of her, no matter how much she wished to keep it hidden.

Miku could see that it was tearing her apart from the inside.

"And then I made the worst mistake of my life" Luka said suddenly. "My self-destruction wasn't yet complete. There was still one person who truly knew me and truly knew what I had become."

"Was it…" Miku began, trepidation in her voice, almost afraid to say…

"Haku" Luka said, the name seeming almost to cause her physical pain. "Yes. Somehow, some way, she still cared about me. She was disgusted. I could tell she resented me for the things I had done. But she still loved me."

Luka looked away. "I must have been determined to ruin that as well."

****************************Lucentia, 12 years earlier*****************************

*SLAM*

The large front door of the Kamui estate flew open as Luka kicked it in. She shut it behind her with equal force, indifferent to the loud crash it made or how it shook the walls. Stumbling drunkenly down the hall, she felt along the walls to find her way just as much as to keep herself upright.

Had one flipped the lights on at that exact moment they wouldn't have ever mistaken the thing in front of them as the famous "legendary assassin." Dark circles under her eyes, dull pink hair disheveled, clothes askew, and bottle in one hand Luka looked awful, as if she both hadn't slept in days and had just woken up. The former happened to be the case on this occasion.

Luka was deeply busy doing what had become her hobby over the past number of months: pretending that she was ok.

The sheathe of Gakupo's sword clinked and clanked as it knocked against the wall from its position on Luka's hip. It seemed less like the refined weapon it was and more like some poor fashion accessory.

Inebriated as she was, Luka had little regard for her environment, more intent on somehow finding her way through the darkened estate without injuring herself than preserving any of the various decorations or accoutrements that adorned the corridor. These two things proved to be more related than she had initially thought as she constantly knocked into framed photos that clattered against the walls, threatening to dislodge themselves, and small end tables and chairs, which bruised her shins as she stumbled over them in the dark.

Cursing under her breath, Luka slowly made her way down the hall, barely noticing as she passed the darkened frame of an open doorway on her unlucky sojourn.

*click*

Luka practically hissed as the light was flicked on in the room she had just passed, flooding the previously pitch black hallway with unwelcome luminescence and causing no small amount of discomfort to her unadjusted eyes.

She experienced a different sort of discomfort as a figure emerged from the room and leaned back against the doorway. Even temporarily blinded as she was, she could feel Haku's disgusted stare from where she stood, arms folded in disapproval.

Unsurprisingly, the two had clashed in the wake of Gakupo's passing. To say that Haku was unhappy with Luka's recent life choices was an understatement of gargantuan proportions. She had understood the grief, certainly. She had shared in it, felt the pain of it, felt the loss in her soul.

And yet what should have been a time of mourning and of healing between siblings had been tainted by betrayal. Her sister, a murderer?

Impossible, she had said.

It can't be.

She wouldn't. Not after what we promised. What we've been through.

The fact remained, however, that Luka's actions could not be ignored; and her apparent willful descent into what Haku could only describe as madness continued to destroy the perfect image she had once imagined her sister to embody.

Their promise thus broken, Haku had refused to speak to her for weeks following the first occurrence. Luka felt no small amount of guilt over it, certainly, and she had been dealing with it as well as could be expected under the circumstances…

Which was to say very badly.

She has no right to judge me, said a pitiful voice in Luka's head.

She can't possibly understand what I had to go through.

She wasn't there, she didn't see it.

The thoughts were small comfort, if at all, and only served to stoke an ember of guilty resentment within her. Haku was supposed to be there for her. She was supposed to understand her. She was supposed to accept her for who she was.

Nevermind that I don't deserve it. The small contrarianism had been drowned out, unable to break through the walls Luka had built up around herself.

"Do you mind?" said Luka, annoyance evident in her voice. "I'm not in the mood for one of your speeches at the moment, in case you couldn't tell."

"You're never in the mood to talk much anymore, speech or not," said Haku, eyes narrowed. "So I'll keep it short: hand it over."

"Sure. Take it" Luka replied, abruptly tossing the half-empty bottle of alcohol to Haku, who caught it more out of reflex than intent.

Haku looked down at the bottle, then back up at Luka, her expression flat. "Really?" she deadpanned.

In her current state one couldn't have blamed Luka for not immediately understanding what Haku was getting after. However, after following Haku's gaze to the scabbard tied haphazardly around her waist, her sister's request was easily understood.

"Hey, hey! What are you asking?" Luka said, riled. "He gave it to me, didn't he? He entrusted it to me? Why should I?"

"I sometimes wonder if the woman he gave that sword to is even alive anymore" Haku mused darkly, stepping fully out into the hallway. "...or have you killed her too?"

Despite herself, Luka recoiled slightly at the sting of Haku's words. Her efforts to drown the guilt inside of her had managed to fail, where Haku was concerned. No matter what she did, her sister was the one person still able to effortlessly cut through any emotional barrier she had erected around herself.

She hated it.

"What, then? You think he should have given it to you?" Luka sniped. "You think you're worthy of it?"

"I never claimed to be," replied Haku, expression neutral. "But I know one thing for sure: the one holding it isn't. Not anymore."

Now Luka's eyes narrowed, staring intently at the figure in front of her. "Oh, I'm not worthy, am I? Not qualified to even hold the blade of the legendary Gakupo Kamui."

Luka sneered. "I follow the rules, you know. I've never broken them a single time. I only draw this when it's time to fight." She tapped the sheath at her side. "I maintain it in solitude, and I'm not dead yet so I don't think you have room to complain."

"A warrior must not draw his blade in anger, or in jest. To do so would dishonor him greatly," Haku said, quoting Gakupo from years prior. "I see it in you. That anger. It's all I ever see in you anymore."

There it was again. Haku's uncanny ability to cut right to her center unnerved Luka. "Yeah, whatever," Luka replied, turning around. "I'm going to sleep." If she couldn't fight it, she'd ignore it. If she were unconscious she wouldn't have to care what Haku said.

"A warrior's blade is his bond. He maintains it for life until either it or he is gone. To dishonor one's blade is to break its bond," Haku quoted again as Luka walked away down the hall. She received no response.

Haku's shoulders sagged, tired of the effort it took to interact with her sister anymore. Several moments passed, and Haku turned to go back into her room.

Something compelled her to stop at her doorway, one hand on the frame. There was a familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach, a very Haku-ish feeling that she knew all too well. This had gone on long enough. Luka was out of control. She needed to do… something.

Haku bit her lip as the determination she was feeling was tinged with doubt and trepidation. This was Luka she was talking about. What could she do? She shook her head to clear it as the hand on the doorframe tightened into a fist. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that she did not do nothing. She turned her gaze down the hallway towards Luka's form fading into the darkness, her eyes falling onto the sword at her hip. It was time for action.

She once again looked down at the bottle of booze in her hand. Frowning, she took a large swig of it and then grimaced. She set it down on the floor.

Luka thought she had managed to once again brush Haku off. That was fine. She was glad for the silence. Not to mention the reprieve from her sister's disappointed gaze. She had nearly reached the end of the hallway when something caused her to stop.

She didn't hear it so much as feel it. The slightest brush of air against her hand, the smallest rustle of her clothes as something shifted at her hip. Reacting on instinct, her hand went down to where she had felt the perceived contact and grasped the first thing it found: the sheathe.

To Luka's surprise, as her hand closed around the sword, she felt resistance, as if something was pulling against her. She spun around-

-and came nearly eye to eye with Haku, one hand likewise on the sheathe.

Luka found the surprise on her face mirrored in Haku's eyes, and for several seconds neither of them moved, not quite fully comprehending what this turn of events meant. But after a moment the deadlock broke and the sisters tensed, both of them feeling as though some sort of barrier had been breached between them. Both narrowed their eyes.

Taking a step forward, Luka made a grab at Haku's arm, but her sister twisted away and leveled a kick at Luka's hand. Luka blocked and opted to take a more direct approach, throwing out a punch at Haku's face, which was likewise blocked.

The two found themselves in a strange back and forth, both with one hand on the sheath, neither willing to let go to get a better angle of attack.

As Luka went for a low kick to try and sweep Haku's leg, she felt a burst of wind as Haku hopped over Luka's strike, seemed to pivot on air, and delivered a kick of her own that found its mark directly across Luka's cheek.

The blow sent Luka staggering backwards, but she managed to hang on to the sheathe, the attack being more surprising than painful. She looked up at Haku in disbelief. What she found looking back at her gave her pause.

The look in Haku's eyes wasn't the annoyance or disappointment she had come to expect over the last few months. Instead she found a steely determination and a smoldering anger. Luka had seen this expression before, dozens of times. This was the look. And it always meant one thing:

Whoever was on the other end was in big trouble.

It was at this same moment that Luka realized that Haku's feet hadn't touched the ground again after she had delivered her kick, instead floating an inch above the floor, unsupported. Immediately Luka's eyes glowed as she activated her vocal vision, seeing Haku's own energy pulsing and billowing, keeping her aloft. A sudden shift in Haku's aura tipped Luka off to another incoming kick, this one several times faster than the first, and not holding anything back.

It was only Luka's experience that allowed her to dodge Haku's next kick, and the second and third that followed it in the blink of an eye. Years of training together had given them an intimate knowledge of the other's abilities and habits, and Luka wouldn't be so easily caught off guard. The fourth kick in the salvo landed right in her open palm as she caught her sister's leg.

Haku, now floating entirely out of the control of gravity, reached her other arm behind her back and grasped the sheathe to give herself the ability to twist and bring her other leg to bear, kicking off of the arm holding her and breaking free of Luka's grip as she flipped over backwards to her original position.

Luka didn't give her time to regain her bearings. It was obvious that Haku meant business this time, and holding back wouldn't cut it. As Haku landed on the floor, preparing to once again leap into the air, Luka crouched low and took her hand off the sheathe. A surge of energy ran through her legs and a sudden forceful blast propelled her forward, driving her shoulder hard into Haku's midsection.

Wrapping her arms around her sister she charged forward, picking up the smaller woman and carrying her bodily down the hallway before pulling up short and delivering an open palm to Haku's chest, accompanied by another blast of force. Her other hand once again grasped the sheath, keeping it in place as the force of her attack ripped it out of Haku's grip.

Haku's eyes suddenly flared brightly and she threw her arms out to the side, coming instantaneously to a halt several feet before impacting the entry door at the end of the hallway. A ripple of force blew several pictures off the walls and rattled the floorboards. She grit her teeth as her energy surged.

Several things happened very quickly.

Luka saw Haku's aura flash distinctly, gathering into her legs before an audible blast of air propelled her to the left.

Haku landed sideways on the wall before instantly pushing off again, rocketing likewise into the right wall as she built up speed. She braced and again propelled herself off the wall with a burst of energy, this time leveling a strike directly at Luka's stomach.

Only able to track her sister's movements through familiarity with her technique, Luka gathered energy at the point of impact, ready to dissipate the force of the blow. She faltered, however, when Haku feinted at the instant before connecting her attack, instead twisting to the side and moving entirely past Luka to pinball off the floor behind her.

Surprised, Luka turned to follow Haku's movement, not recognizing her sister's intent. Haku, for her part, braced her hands against the floor as she impacted, bending at the elbows and coiling her entire body like a spring before her momentum reversed and she blasted herself off the floor, sending an uppercut heel kick directly into the underside of Luka's jaw.

Such was the force of Haku's kick that Luka was momentarily lifted entirely off the ground, her neck snapping backwards in whiplash. A rush of wind accompanied Haku twisting in midair as she grasped the sheath and planted a blast of vocal energy directly into Luka's abdomen.

Separated as she was from any point of contact with the ground, and knocked senseless besides, Luka was blasted backwards down the corridor the way she had entered, the sheath remaining firmly in Haku's outstretched hand.

One arm extended in front of her, Haku glared down the gloomy hallway as her sister crashed to the ground, bouncing and rolling momentarily before catching herself and skidding to a stop, legs coiled.

Haku spoke: "This doesn't belong to you anym-"

"GIVE IT BACK!"

Luka's enraged screech was accompanied by an unnatural wave of force as her energy swelled and then blasted out behind her. The floor, walls, and ceiling around her splintered as Luka exploded forward, clearing the distance down the hallway towards her sister in an instant.

Haku had no time to react as Luka's insane acceleration brought the woman slamming into her with overwhelming force, her shoulder driving into Haku's midsection. With an animalistic snarl, Luka placed one hand on the sheath, bringing her other hand to bear as it glowed bright pink.

Her arm humming with power, Luka smashed her fist into Haku's chest, unleashing a shockwave that picked Haku up off the ground and sent her flying through the air, easily clearing the entire length of the hallway before crashing straight through the sliding doors at the end of the corridor, blowing them off their tracks and sending Haku bouncing and slamming into the ground of the courtyard beyond.

Rattled and dizzy, Haku registered another explosion of energy as Luka came rocketing out of the hallway.

Time seemed to slow as she watched. Before her was a dark, bestial shadow; a monster with violet eyes blazing and claws outstretched. It leapt through the air, howling in rage and for an instant Haku felt a paralyzing, primal feeling.

Death

Haku shuddered and forcibly suppressed the feeling. She blinked, and the shadow materialized again into the form of her sister, her shining eyes filled with pain and anger, her mouth open in a scream. She watched as Luka cast the sheath aside and drew Gakupo's blade, the steel glimmering coldly in the moonlight.

Summoning all the power she could, Haku brought her arms up defensively and fell backwards, Luka's slash cutting deeply into her forearm.

With a hiss of pain and a burst of silver, Haku's own eyes glowed as she caught herself in midair, floating on nothing. Channeling energy into her leg she kicked upward, hitting Luka's hand and sending the blade arcing through the air away from the pair of them.

Her kick sending her off balance, Luka's momentum carried her forward to land on top of Haku. The two sisters crashed to the ground, grappling and striking at each other as they slid through the dirt.

"What's wrong with you!?" Haku shouted, throwing a punch that landed across Luka's left cheek. "Luka!"

"SHUT UP!" Luka roared in response, kneeing Haku in the side.

Haku struggled to breathe, Luka's superior raw physical strength making their current struggle difficult for her. She grabbed at Luka's wrists as she tried to entwine their legs to prevent further kicks.

With a bellow Luka brought a fist down like a hammer, slamming into Haku's face. Her cheek began to swell immediately. Another fist landed across her jaw, rattling her teeth and bruising her chin.

"Luka!" Haku shouted again, desperately.

"IT'S MINE!" Luka yelled in response, even though the sword was laying several feet away.

Several more blows rained down and Haku's vision started to waver. She sputtered and coughed.

"Luka! Please! Stop! I can't- *cough* I can't…"

Finally a spark of recognition, however small, appeared in Luka's eyes and the savage blows stopped. Luka replaced them with screams, yelling into her sister's face.

"Dad gave it to me!" She shouted. "Me! Not you!"

"I know!" Haku yelled back. "It's yours! But obsessing over it is driving you insane!"

"It's all I have!" Luka screamed, angry tears beginning to form.

"He's gone!" Haku replied, shedding tears of her own. "You have to move on! He didn't want this for you!"

Luka snarled. "Shut up! You don't know anything!"

Haku grit her teeth, anger welling up inside her as well. "I know enough! You have to stop this!"

"You don't have any idea what I… What he… What I had to…" Luka sputtered.

"I know you're hurting!" Haku said. "I'm hurting too! But you're destroying yourself!"

"He was all I had!" Luka shouted.

"You had me!" Haku shouted back. Struggling, she brought up her left arm and displayed the deep gash that Gakupo's sword had left in it. "But look what you're doing!"

Luka physically recoiled at the sight of Haku's bloody forearm. Disgusted not at the wound itself, but at what it represented. "I did what I had to!" she screamed.

"I don't know what you mean!" Haku pleaded, not understanding.

"I'm the one who killed him!"

Haku blanched at the statement. "You- you what!?"

"I didn't have a choice!" Luka continued. "He wanted it! He asked me to do it! How could I say no!? I did it! I did it and I hate it! I hate it and I hate myself!"

Luka shouted deliriously as tears of rage ran down her face. "I hate myself and I hate YOU! I hate everything!"

Luka took a deep breath, locked her eyes on Haku and screamed:

"I WISH YOU HAD DIED INSTEAD!"

Silence.

As the words left her mouth, Luka felt her blood turn to ice. Her anger, so terrible and consuming only moments before vanished in an instant, being replaced by a gut-wrenching fear. Her eyes widened, her conscious mind trying to process what she had just said. Her gaze fell onto Haku's, their eyes locking. She tried to speak, but she couldn't, her mouth working soundlessly. She wished… what? No… that couldn't be right. That wasn't right!

A tense, horrible silence expanded between them for what felt like an eternity.

Finally:

"...So do I" Haku replied quietly.

A deafening silence enveloped the courtyard as the two sisters looked at each other. A moment later, Fresh tears slowly began to flow from Luka's eyes as her strength failed and she collapsed to the side, sobbing gently into the sandy soil of the garden.

For her part, however, Haku shed no more tears. Her face swollen, bruised, and bloody from Luka's assault, she stared directly ahead at the dark doorway the two of them had blasted through, a strange look in her eyes.

"...I'm leaving" she said finally, pushing herself to her feet with difficulty. "Do whatever you want with the sword. It's not my business anymore."

From her curled up position on the ground, Luka sensed a shift in Haku's tone that she'd never heard before. It sounded… tired, defeated, bereft of her sister's unbreakable resolve. Somehow, Luka knew that Haku's statement carried more weight than it seemed.

She slowly turned her head as Haku took a single shaky step back towards the house. She managed to force the words out: "...what? You're… leaving?" Her voice was small and afraid. Haku didn't reply. Luka felt a pang of unnatural fear ripple through her.

"W-where will you go? When are you coming back?" The questions sounded almost like pleading. Haku didn't stop, simply taking several more unsteady steps.

"...I'm not coming back" she replied simply.

"You're not… coming…" Luka repeated to herself in a whisper. Suddenly her eyes went wide. "Haku, please! Don't! I'm sorry! I… I didn't mean what I said!"

"Yes. You did." Haku responded, neither turning around or stopping. "I meant it too."

Luka attempted unsuccessfully to stagger to her feet, only succeeding in tumbling awkwardly in Haku's direction, falling on her chest. She pushed herself up on her arms. "I didn't!" she reiterated, a note of terror in her voice. "You have to believe me! I would never! You're my sister! I couldn't ever wish that you… that you…"

Haku remained silent, her eyes focused ahead of her with determination.

A fresh surge of fear ran through Luka as she felt in her soul that Haku was serious. She scrambled along the ground, crawling forward on her hands and knees, desperately trying to catch up with her sister.

"No!" She yelled, her expression manic with dread as she practically clawed at the dirt beneath her trying to reach Haku.

She painted a grim picture, dragging herself forward, her frame wracked with sobs as she groveled. With no small amount of difficulty, Luka at last managed to catch up to her sister just as she reached the threshold of the hallway. Falling forward, Luka grasped Haku's ankle with both hands, tilting her head up to plead with her sister.

"Please!" she wailed. "I can't lose you too!"

For a moment Haku said nothing, her shoulders hunched and expression dark. Then, slowly, she turned her head around to stare down into Luka's tearstained face.

Luka physically recoiled at the look in Haku's eyes. Gone was the fiery passion and light. Gone was the snarky attitude and playfulness. In their place was rage, sadness, and pain. But above all else there was one thing in Haku's gaze that tore through to the very core of Luka's being:

Disgust.

"Let go of me" Haku spat, as if she was looking at something detestable. She forcefully ripped her leg from Luka's grasp. "You've already lost me."

Luka broke.

A high, keening cry of pure sorrow tore from Luka's throat as she pushed herself to her knees. She hyperventilated as she clutched at her contracting chest, her pulse pounding in her ears. Her entire body was wracked with convulsive sobs as she screamed into the night.

"NO! PLEASE!" She cried like a child, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Haku! Please! PLEASE!"

Haku did not look back again as she stepped into the hallway and into darkness, Luka's outstretched hand reaching in futility after her sister's disappearing figure. Her vision became blurred with tears as her arm dropped to her side and she collapsed to the ground again, her crying fading in volume.

"I'm sorry… I love you… I'm sorry." She repeated to herself, arms clutching her head and her eyes screwed shut.

A dozen feet away, Gakupo's unsheathed blade gleamed in the moonlight, its beautiful blade stained red with blood. Through the slowly congealing liquid, a single word could be read: Castis. Punishment.

****************************One week later*****************************

Luka knelt alone in the Kamui estate's central courtyard. It was nearing noon, and only the large tree at the center of the garden provided her with any shade from the heat of the sun above.

Around her were the sounds of summer. Cicadas buzzed and birds called to one another, but Luka wasn't listening.

Before her on the ground lay Gakupo's sword. Its enameled ivory sheath was polished to a perfect sheen, and the name Kamui could be seen engraved near the top.

For many silent moments Luka simply remained kneeling, observing the sword before her contemplatively. To an outside observer, it might have almost seemed as if she was practicing some form of meditation, though if one were to look into her eyes, they would find a sea of turmoil.

They might also notice the dark circles under her eyes and her blotchy complexion, her tangled hair and dirty clothing. If they took the time to notice, they might wonder why the blade before her seemed to be in such perfect condition, while its owner was obviously nowhere near the same.

The last several days had not been kind to Luka Megurine.

Haku's departure had left her utterly broken. She remembered her sister's eyes as she left. That look of disgust.

Luka could still feel that repugnant gaze upon her even in its absence. It tore at her very soul, eating away at her until the guilt and shame were almost too much to bear.

She had looked for Haku. As soon as the following morning, when her cries of despair had quieted to only the occasional whimper, and her legs were once again obeying her, she had scoured the estate and the surroundings, of course finding nothing. She knew in her heart that Haku would not be found.

A new numbness overcame her. Unlike the brief respites her recent lifestyle had afforded her, this numbness was the feeling of being crushed, and yet unable to cry out, unable to feel as her very being was compressed and withered away.

For several days Luka wandered the halls of the estate like a ghost. And during this period that numbness gradually receded, replaced instead by an incredible remorse. She felt acutely the pain that Haku must have endured watching her break her promise and push her away, and in time Haku's disgust had become her own. She now saw in herself what Haku must have seen. She had never honored Gakupo's memory, but irreparably tarnished it. She had scorned the love of her only remaining family.

Luka snapped back to the present with difficulty, inhaling deeply through her nose and endeavoring to keep herself anchored. She looked down once again to the naked blade before her.

Haku was right. She didn't deserve this blade. She had killed the "her" that did. The path forward was obvious.

A warrior's blade is his bond. He maintains it for life until either it or he is gone. To dishonor one's blade is to break its bond. A dishonored blade must be broken, and cast away, and the one who dishonored it may never forge another.

Gakupo's words were as crystal clear to her now as they had been all those years ago, and they were no less true.

A momentary surge, a flash…

Gakupo's blade snapped cleanly in half, the two pieces clattering lightly against the ground.

Face blank, eyes dark, Luka stood. Then she turned, walked out the front door of the Kamui estate and never returned.

~V~

Miku observed that Luka's sobbing had stopped. She didn't cry anymore. Perhaps she couldn't. She just looked… empty. All traces of any emotion were gone from her mentor's face, the events of the past having seemingly washed her away.

"I…" Miku tried to speak, but found that her throat was incredibly dry and hoarse. What should she say? What could she say? There was nothing for it. Luka's story was horrible. It was the story of someone who had hit rock bottom, and had never managed to claw their way back, even after all this time.

"Please…" Luka spoke, begging, her voice tiny and barely audible. She hardly glanced up to meet Miku's eyes, sounding timid and afraid, a flash of fear once again showing across her features.

"Please… don't hate me…"

Miku's heart nearly broke at the sight.

She didn't even register that she was moving until she had crossed the distance between them and embraced Luka tightly.

"I don't!" Miku said, hoping with all her might that Luka would believe her. "I don't, so… you don't have to worry."

Luka's face was a mask of shock, her eyes wide as she felt her student's arms encircling her, before she slowly, cautiously, brought her own arms up to return the gesture.

It was only moments before she was once again bawling like a child, clutching desperately at the back of Miku's shirt.

For her part Miku was stunned. She was the last person she would expect to hug someone. That was Luka's thing. And yet when she had seen that version of Luka glancing up at her, small, terrified, wretched with worry that she had once again managed to drive away the one person who cared about her, she had acted on instinct.

She didn't hate Luka, and as the other woman cried directly into her shoulder, she realized that she could never hate her. She loved her like family. Miku realized that at this very moment, she was the one person most important to Luka in the entire world, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

This particular embrace far outlasted any other her mentor had pestered her with over the previous months, and for once, Miku found that she didn't mind. She smiled softly and patted Luka on the back.

"So that was… something, huh?" Miku offered lamely.

She was relieved to hear a weak, muffled chuckle from Luka, who still had her face buried in Miku's chest.

"I-" she began.

"So are you two finally fucking finished?" came a voice from the doorway. "The way this was going I was sure you two were about to get down and dirty."

Both Miku and Luka's attention snapped to the doorway as a familiar red-vest wearing, black boot stomping individual emerged from her hiding place in the hallway outside.

"Wha… Meiko?" Luka sputtered.

"You!" Miku growled.

"So now it all makes sense" Meiko said, looking pleased at their surprise. "The great legendary assassin revealed in all her bloody, murderous glory. I was wondering what makes you tick, and boy do I have a pretty fucking good idea now."

"You… you were listening?" Luka asked, horrified.

"Every. Last. Fucking. Word." Meiko confirmed, taking a few more confident steps into the room.

"That was none of your business, you asshole!" said Miku angrily.

"Agree to disagree, kid." Meiko replied flippantly. "I've got my own agenda to worry about here."

"You had no right!" Luka yelled furiously, enraged that the woman had intruded on something so private and painful.

"I had EVERY right!" Meiko yelled back with equal ferocity. A sudden wave of heat accompanied her outburst, raising the temperature in the room by several degrees. "Let's take a second to remember who oh so graciously agreed to let you in here, despite the insane security risk you pose. You are priority numero uno for the enemy, and I will not risk the safety of every soldier under my command just to avoid offending your polite fucking sensibilities!"

"Stop talking like you have any idea what she's been through!" Miku shouted, standing from the bed.

"That's the thing, shrimp. I don't give a fuck what she's been through." Meiko replied callously. "I understand now that she's half of the reason we're in this mess and now that I know that, the only question I want an answer to is whether or not she's going to pay her dues and help us clean it up."

She focused her attention back on Luka, striding purposefully to stand directly in front of her. "It is all too clear that you don't have any fucking idea what you are doing or what you are fighting for. It should be clear to you that your dear sister is not content to sit on her laurels and let you ride this one out. You do not comprehend the fury of the storm that is coming your way and if you choose to ignore it the people you care about will die and that is not a warning it is a promise."

For her part Luka merely glared up at Meiko from her position on the bed before grudgingly averting her eyes. Despite her anger she couldn't refute what Meiko said. She wasn't naive enough to think that the events at the Clonderwell DVA were an isolated incident, and couldn't deny that her past was catching up to her in a more catastrophic way than she had thought possible.

"That's what I fucking thought" said Meiko, snarling.

"And you!" she said, turning her attention to Miku. "I suppose you think you're hot shit for beating the hell out of Ruko, don't you? Well, allow me to rain on your parade. You got lucky. I have lost people twice your age and experience to her over the past months so do not for one second believe that a moment of good fortune and determination amounts to anything."

"She's done more in one night than your entire operation has done in months!" said Luka. "Seems to me that you should be on your knees thanking her."

Meiko rounded on her, eyes quite literally blazing. She grabbed Luka by the collar and physically hoisted her to her feet.

"Don't you touch her!" Miku cried, immediately making to grab at Meiko's arm. A sudden burst of hot air sent her sprawling backwards onto the bed she had been occupying.

"Pipe down, kid, the adults are talking." Meiko said, pulling Luka closer until they were mere inches apart.

"I don't like your fucking tone" she said, staring directly into Luka's eyes. The vocaloid master matched her glare with one of her own. "You should learn to accept help when it's given to you."

"Help?" Luka scoffed. "If this is what you call help-"

"Oh you have no idea!" interrupted Meiko. "I always dreamed of meeting the legendary sigas algrimo some day and now that I have I have to say I never imagined they'd be such a pair of idiotic self-righteous bitches!"

Luka made to retort but Meiko had had enough. Pushing her backwards onto the bed with a shove, Meiko loomed over her.

"Instead of fucking your student over there you can get down and dirty with me instead. I'm giving you a choice, Megurine. Either you and everyone you brought with you can clear out of here by tomorrow evening or…"

She leaned in closer.

"Or you can fight me."

********************************End of Chapter**********************************

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…

But yeah… hey. I'm back. I know there's a lot of people who hold this story quite dear to their hearts, myself included, and it's nothing short of a crime that I've allowed it to sit idly for so long but uh… what's 5 years between friends, right?

All joking aside I want to say that I have never forgotten about this fic. I hold it as one of the things I'm most proud of creating. A lot of things have changed over the last 5 years. I got married, for one. So there's that. I have added to this chapter on and off for a long time. I actually have a document where I write down special lines of dialogue or story beats that I plan to include in the future and this chapter crossed several of the oldest entries there off the list. I've had Luka's outburst to Haku planned for over a decade. Now that it's finally here it's… wow. I'm very proud of this and the previous chapter, as they represent the culmination of Luka's character that I've been trying to build for a long time, as well as some of the best writing I feel I've ever done.

But enough talking. As always, thank you for reading. I'm probably going to work on this fic more regularly now (he says, having just disappeared for 5 years). I also got a random request from someone on AO3 (archiveofourown) that asked me to upload the rest of this story there too. I'll be honest. I forgot I had an account on AO3, much less that I had already uploaded 3 chapters of this fic there, but if you prefer you can check it out there too (thanks to realkagaminerin for the suggestion).

Oh… I almost forgot. We should include some music, shouldn't we? Only one song this time but from the first time I ever listened to this, it has shaped the way I wrote this chapter and Luka and Haku's relationship as a whole. It really isn't a stretch to say that this is one of my favorite songs of all time:

Feint - Vagrant (ft. Veela)
/watch?v=FavAXc5-HVc

I still don't get why I can't put youtube links here but w/e. Just put youtube dot com before that link.

It really is a great piece of music. Anyways, for now (and hopefully not for too long) this is Anarchysong, signing off!