Disclaimer: I do not own DTB nor do I claim to.

It was three fifty-two in the morning, but Misaki Kirihara was awake. She had woken only moments ago, with a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn't know whether it was the lingering memory of a nightmare, or an omen of something terrible, but she would not be able to fall back asleep now.

As she left her room and walked into the living room, the clock slowly clicked to four. And the phone rang.

"Kirihara here," she said anxiously; there could be only one reason for her to be called in the middle of the night, and that was because of a contractor. "What happened?"

"Misaki? It's Kanami. It's— I can hardly believe it, but BK-201... his star has fallen."

"Say—say again? You're sure of this?"

"Yeah, there was a huge amount of contractor activity. There must have been more than thirty of them. They all registered with our specters at once, and a moment later so did BK-201. It looks like he was targeted, actually. He took out more than half of them before his star fell... Misaki? Hello, you still there?"

"Oh—yes, it's just..."

"Shocking, huh? Never would have thought..." Kanami went on about some of the stories that she had heard about the Black Reaper, about how he had seemed virtually immortal, but Misaki's mind was in a daze. They were finally through with BK-201. Another dangerous criminal was off the streets... so why did it feel so wrong? So... empty? Try as she might to pay attention to what Kanami was saying, her mind kept drifting back to the conversation that she had had with Li-kun. When she had said that the new stars were beautiful too.

"I mean, he just always seemed to be there, didn't he? Seemed like he'd never die..."

"Yeah," Misaki murmured, feeling slightly sick, "He was always there..."

She had encountered him at almost every pivotal moment in her life during the last year. He had been at Alice's party... and he had saved her then, when Wei had been about to kill them. How many times had he saved her, and how many times had they crossed paths?

A sharp knock on the door startled her out of her musing.

"Eh, Kanami, hang on a sec—there's someone at the door..."

"Oh, sure. Wonder who it could be at four in the morning?"

Wearily she got off of the sofa, tucking a gun into her waistband before going to the door, the phone held loosely in her hand. You never knew what kind of person it could be at this time of night. She pulled it open, to have something dumped at her feet. The phone slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

In shock, Misaki stared down at the body of BK-201. Then she looked up at the person who had dumped him there.

He was a heavyset man who reeked of cigarette smoke, but she hardly noticed that. It was the expression that he wore that caught her expression. It was one of sorrow, and an odd mixture of anger and regret.

"Why did you bring him here?" Misaki asked hollowly, looking back down at the still form of the Black Reaper once again. She longed to reach down and pull off that mask...but part of her dreaded it.

"You're Kirihara, right?"

She nodded.

"I came because it was better that you got him than them. They'd have no respect, and I wouldn't be able to—Damn it all, I wouldn't let them—I started to care for this bastard, even with what he was. I couldn't let them do that to him, even if he's gone. They'd have no respect..."

She looked at him blankly for a moment before Kanami's voice over the phone caught her attention.

"Ex—excuse me.

"Kanami? I've got to go. I—I might call you later..."

"Misaki, what—?" She closed the phone with a snap.

She and the man at the door looked at each other for a moment, before he looked down at the still form on the doorstep.

Bending down, he picked the Black Reaper up again, and shouldered his way inside before depositing him more neatly on the sofa.

"I'm sorry kid, I didn't get there sooner." He murmured to the dark figure before standing up again. With a gruff laugh, he said "I'll see you in hell, Hei." before turning and walking out again without a backwards glance.

Misaki was left standing alone at the doorstep.

Slowly, she shut the still open door and moved back into the living room before kneeling beside BK-201 as the man had. She reached out; she had to know the face behind the mask.

Shaking fingers brushed cold porcelain, pulling away at the edge... and the mask slipped from her hand and fell the short distance to the floor. No, it couldn't be...

"L—" she choked. She couldn't say the name.

Li-kun, the feared Black Reaper? It was incomprehensible. And yet...the proof lay before her.

No. Oh, no, no, no.

"No..."

She herself had at one time suspected it, just for an instant. But then she had seen who it was. He was Li-kun, too kind and gentle to be the most feared contractor. And he...he had been...

"Ahhh," a shuddering gasp left her throat, and tears slipped between the fingers of her hands pressed rigidly against her face. She wouldn't fall apart. She wouldn't.

Misaki was a strong person, everyone knew that. But if that was the truth, then she wondered how she had come to find herself slumped over Hei's chest, her tears falling onto his black coat and rolling down its water-proof surface.

"Oh, oh, god..."

How did things end up like this? Couldn't anything have been done to prevent Li from walking into that trap?

Now that she'd finally seen the face behind the mask, she was beginning to wish that she never had.

a/n: This story was so much fun to write...but then, maybe I'm just evil.

Heh heh heh... Oh you poor, poor, little characters. I can shatter your lives in a moment... ;)

Well anyways, let me know what you think, please!

(If anyone wants this continued-very slight chance though it is-I might throw Amber into the mix with her super time changing abilities.)