"There really is no reason to point that thing at me Chiba-san."

Kyouko looked down on the blade pointed at her face with a slight air of mirth to her expression.

Erika was also smiling, but it was the type of smile that made her companions shiver. That she was looking forward to getting a few swings in at the internationally renowned Electron Sorceress was painfully apparent for all present to see.

"I will determine the need for my sword, not you."

Erika tilted the blade so that the late afternoon sunlight from the wall of windows glinted around the room.

Miyuki knew Erika's skills with a blade were world class, but Kyouko was a trained member of the 101 Battalion. A bloodbath in Erika's late brother's flat was the next step if no one intervened.

"This is Chiba property. What gives you the right to break in and steal from us?"

Erika's eyes flicked briefly towards the box in Kyouko's arms.

Minami had already stepped between Miyuki and the two potential combatants, but Miyuki slid past her to place a gentle hand on Erika's extended right forearm.

"I'm sure Kyouko-san has a perfectly good reason for being here Erika-chan. Let's hear her out."

Erika smirked viciously at Miyuki's words without ever taking her predatory eyes off the slightly amused visage of the "intruder".

"It better be a damn good explanation."

She never lowered her blade, ready for any quick movements so she could justify a retaliatory strike of her own.

Kyouko spoke with a light air to her voice, despite the apparent danger she was in.

"You might check the entry computer to begin with. You'll see that I was on the list of guests with unescorted entry rights."

"Pointless."

Erika responded to Kyouko's words with confident authority.

"I know who you are, your skillset, and your reputation. No one in the world could alter a computer as easily as present company."

Kyouko smiled with genuine glee at Erika's words.

"You flatter me Chiba-san."

Erika smirked back as she responded.

"Simply stating a known fact Fujibayashi-san. I will allow you to try again."

Never losing her smile, Kyouko sighed as if she felt what was to come next couldn't be helped. She turned slightly to place the box in her arms down on the kitchen counter. The whole time Erika's blade point followed her.

Kyouko then reached into the box, but not before Erika twitched her blade slightly at her.

"Slowly, Fujibayashi-san. We would hate to have an unfortunate incident over a misstep."

Kyouko's smile intensified as she reached further into the box.

"Of course, Chiba-san."

Then Kyouko turned slightly from Erika's feral gaze with a smirk still showing on her own face.

"He certainly knew you well."

Miyuki barely heard it but the words seemed to act as a slap in the face for Erika. Her already coiled muscles tensed instantly. Her smile instantly melted away and an angry scowl creased her usually beautiful features.

"That fool never knew a damn thing worth knowing!"

Miyuki wasn't the only bystander who knew instantly who "that fool" was referring to.

"His own stupidity is why that idiot is dead!"

Erika had been particularly callous just the other day and had instantly regretted it.

This reaction though, particularly about her own dead brother, was downright coldhearted.

Someone as skilled at controlling particle movement as Miyuki couldn't help but feel the sudden stillness that followed Erika's harsh words. It was Kyouko's turn to direct an intense glare at Erika. A cold look so harsh that even the intractable Erika took a slight step backward from it.

"Oh, he knew you well indeed Erika."

For the first time in her experience, Miyuki felt genuine fear of The Electron Sorceress.

"But it's clear that you never knew Kazu-kun at all."

These coolly delivered words acted like petrol on Erika's fire.

"Who do you think you are to lecture me on my idiot brother?"

"Ladies!"

To Minami's obvious consternation, Miyuki boldly thrust herself between the two angry women.

"This isn't helpful. Kyouko-san, you were going to show us something to explain why you are here?"

Without the anger radiating off of her decreasing in the slightest, Kyouko turned back to the box and spoke again lightly.

"Indeed Miyuki-san. I was going to show something more subtle to explain my presence in Kazu-kun's flat, but it's clear SOME here need a blunter example to be satisfied."

She retrieved a small and delicate looking piece of cloth from the box and leveled a cold stare at the still fuming Erika.

"You want to know why I'm here. Very well."

She held out her left fist with the cloth in it and moved her fingers slightly to allow most of the garment to drop and reveal its form.

"As you can plainly see, I was retrieving some of my personal items."

Miyuki, Honoka, and Mizuki all gasped and covered their stunned open mouths. Minami and Shizuku's eyebrows raised up their foreheads in surprise, but they managed to keep their mouths closed somehow.

"Sorry to scandalized you ladies."

Only the slightest hint of embarrassment showed on Kyouko's face as a pair of what everyone now assumed were her undergarments hung from her outstretched hand towards the unimpressed looking face of Erika.

"But your friend here seemed to need more direct…'proof'."

Erika twisted her lips up at Kyouko's words, sword tip still leveled at Kyouko with intent.

"This is your justification? Panties and trinkets?"

Erika only slightly lowered Mizuchimaru from Kyouko's face to her torso.

"Am I to be impressed that Idiot-nii's pathetic one-liners made you forget your honor?"

"Erika! Stop it now, please!"

Miyuki was clearly becoming frustrated with Erika's obstinacy, but to everyone's surprise Kyouko began laughing heartily.

As the girls, including Erika this time, now looked on her mirthfulness with confusion; Kyouko waved a hand at them and finally gained some composure.

"Haaaaaa….."

After a long sigh, Kyouko smiled and shook her head in amusement.

"Chiba-san….."

Now she directed a sympathetic smile at Erika, which only seemed to re-fire Erika's fury.

"You want to check the box for other contraband?"

She picked the box up and tilted it slightly to show the contents. Miyuki wasn't the only one present who flinched back at this gesture, expecting more "unmentionables".

"Or perhaps you'd like to frisk me to see if I'm smuggling valuable Chiba property out?"

As she said this she turned her posterior towards her sword-wielding inquisitor.

Seeing that Erika was beginning to become cowed in front of her friends by Kyouko's bold suggestions, Kyouko took the opportunity and moved past Erika with the box back in her arms.

"Swing that weapon or put it away. Either way, I have my things back and I'm leaving now."

Erika didn't even turn to watch her go.

Kyouko nodded and smiled at each girl as she approached the door. She then stopped at the doorway and looked back at Erika's droop-shoulder visage. Mizuchimaru now hung lifelessly beside her.

"There's a data crystal in the terminal in his room. I suspect it is his personal journals. One might possibly gain a better insight into someone she clearly never really knew by giving it even a cursory a glace."

Kyouko began to leave again but stopped once more with a look as if she had just forgotten something important.

"And Chiba-san….."

Erika only slightly turned her head in response to Kyouko's words, never turning fully around to look at her.

"You are very wrong to speak so harshly of your Nii-san. He loved and respected you more than you could possibly know. He spoke glowingly of you every time you were mentioned. In fact he was intensely proud to be you."

Her eyes took on a hard and threatening edge as she continued.

"If you ever speak of him in this manner again in my presence, or for that matter draw a weapon on me again, I will make you gravely regret it."

Kyouko let the door close behind her without another look and walked the short distance down the hall with her box in her arms. As such, she had no way to know that all of Erika's companions including Miyuki of the Yotsuba now had a healthy fear and respect for her.

She rode the elevator car to street level and emerged just in time for her car's AI to pull the vehicle up at the curb beside her. She had a secret neural implant of her own design that allowed her to control her technological assets with thought alone. A piece of technology she had developed and was testing to provide another edge to the 101 Battalion and eventually the entire Self-Defense Forces.

Box now secured in the passenger's seat, she occupied the driver's seat and let the AI drive her off to her own residence.

Earlier that day, she had reviewed the property and data of Inspector Chiba's partner Detective Inagaki at a storage unit where it had been placed after his own demise. A few items she thought significant from his property, including some pictures, recordings, letters, and emails, now either sat in another box on her back seat, or in a data crystal in her car console.

Kyouko had been surprised to find a significant number of images and recordings in Inagaki's possession that featured a woman that looked very much like Tatsuya and Miyuki's live-in servant Minami.

She discovered the woman's name was Sakurai Honami, and then learned of her significance to Tatsuya and Miyuki. She had been their mother's personal assistant and bodyguard, and had apparently sacrificed her own life so that a much younger Tatsuya could complete the destruction of the invasion forces on Okinawa.

Learning of this from the classified 101 Battalion's data, Kyouko had subsequently contacted Lieutenant Colonel Kazama for more details, since he had known the woman briefly and was present when she died.

From him she learned that before coming into the Yotsuba's employment, Sakurai Honami had served with the Metropolitan Police, as part of her career development for further Yotsuba service.

She apparently was also the previous partner of one Sergeant Inagaki when they had both been uniform cops.

From all she learned from the documents in his possession, they apparently had a romantic relationship as well.

The evidence to this she found in his possession overwhelmingly suggested intimacy between them.

Given the similarity in name, employment, and appearance, Minami was clearly related to the woman.

"Had Erika not been so pig headed I could have given them these things today."

Now she'd have to arrange another way to get these items to them, since apparently Minami might be Honami's closest living relative; but that was as it had been before the girls walked unexpectedly into Toshikazu's flat, so Kyouko resolved not to get further worked up about it.

"No need to let her get back up under my skin."

Kyouko had held the upper hand in the heated exchange of words with Toshikazu's little sister right up to the point where Erika had attacked him verbally. Kyouko had been surprised how easily Erika disparaging her brother had gotten to her.

"When did I become a defender of Inspector Chiba's honor?"

What she was really asking is when did she start taking Toshikazu's honor personally? Her pride wouldn't allow her to say that he had meant more to her than just a good time. It was something she now felt she needed to work on to overcome.

Someone in her line of work couldn't afford any vulnerabilities. Not secret brothers or famous grandfathers, and certainly not dead fiancés and…..

"…'boyfriends'?"

Had Toshikazu actually been her "boyfriend"?

They had certainly played at that type of relationship on the rare instances they had gotten together.

After a few moments she shook her head, dismissing the idea. They had never formalized anything, and they certainly both were too busy to devote the amount of time needed to be in a "real" relationship.

"'Friends' with 'benefits'?"

That felt like a more accurate description of what they shared together, but for some reason she couldn't explain that description too felt wrong…..inadequate…and too….lonely.

More than "friends with benefits" but less than a real relationship. For the life of her she couldn't find the terms to describe what Toshikazu and she had meant to each other.

"….I'm sorry."

A sudden wave of sadness and regret washed over her as she looked to the box of "her" things sitting beside her.

He had wanted more from her. It was she that had kept the distance between them.

Now, when it was far too late to change things, she regretted her choice.

"You deserved better."

That data crystal that she had told Erika was probably Toshikazu's journals was in fact his journals.

She was glad Erika didn't take up her offer to be frisked or else the copy she had just made of those journals would have been discovered in her bra.

Would Erika take her unsolicited advice and look at her brother's self-told life story as she herself just had and planned to again?

Kyouko shook her head at the notion. In the end it didn't affect her in any way if Erika did or didn't.

"It's her loss if she doesn't."

Then she remembered his smiling face and realized he probably would want his little sister to know the "real" him.

"But for his sake….it would be nice if she at least looked at what he had to say about her."

Anger welled up in Kyouko again, as she remembered Erika's harsh words about the man she…

…she….

Her car sped on into the setting afternoon light for a long time before Kyouko came out of that last thought. She had held onto that last thought for several minutes at least before coming back to the cold reality of her world.

She then felt something on her cheeks.

Using her hand, she wiped at it, and then cursed in frustration at herself.

"Damn."

Only now did she realize her face was wet.

Angry with herself, she pouted and looked out the window at the harbor below as the car crossed over the New Tokyo Gate Bridge on its way home.

She had just realized that she herself was actually angry with Toshikazu, for putting himself in harm's way so recklessly. For getting himself killed so pointlessly, since his partner was already dead too, though he had no way to know that at the time.

Thus depriving her of the chance to fix her own mistake.

It was apparently going to be another long and lonely night for her once again.

The incident at Toshikazu's flat had brought a dramatic and embarrassing ending to what had already been a frustratingly embarrassing day for her.

Now she sat alone, at last, in the relative comfort of her rooms inside the Chiba Dojo Compound.

No one here would bother her.

Her family barely acknowledged she was alive most of the time, except Naotsugu on the rare occasions his duties allowed him to come home.

"When he's not with….THAT person."

Thinking of Naotsugu with his girlfriend…..correction…..fiancée, Watanabe Mari, was doing nothing to ease her restless and agitated state.

"Apparently both my brothers liked highly irritating women."

After their encounter today, Fujibayashi Kyouko was giving Mari real competition for Erika's second least favorite female. Neither had much of a chance of ever reaching the front-runner though. Her half-sister Sanae was the undisputed occupant of the top spot on Erika's least liked women's list.

It had seemed a punishment as a child to be banished to live in an out building, certainly her mother had thought so, but being banished from sleeping in the main residence now seemed a blessing to her.

She could sulk and pout on her own, with no one to see her weakness but her harshest of critics, even if she consciously thought her family much harsher in their judgements of her than she herself was.

Pity, sadness, loneliness, these were some of the more melancholy emotions Erika worked to deny herself on a constant basis.

Whenever she began to feel these, she would convert them into something more useful. A "fuel" to drive her forward under trying circumstances.

Anger.

She would use her "fuel", her anger, to push herself forward, past their low expectations of her.

To Erika, this had been the true lesson of "The Chiba Way".

When confronted don't hesitate…attack!

It was so ingrained in her now to immediately go on the offensive that she wouldn't allow herself reflection until long after the "battle" was over, and she rarely bothered with reflection when she couldn't change anything after the fact.

"Why dwell on things that have already happened and can't be changed?"

For the first time in a very long time, Erika was doing just that though.

Now anger had become such an automatic reaction to any negative emotion for her that Erika could no longer process whether her darker feelings were actually a result of anger or something else she didn't allow herself anymore.

And it was all because of….

"…him."

She should be angry at the floosy intruder sneaking around her late brother's flat, and she was.

She should be embarrassed to show her face in front of her friends on Monday morning, and she was this as well.

But for some reason all she could think about was….

"…..him."

She knew by looking in his eyes that something had changed between them.

He no longer looked at her in the same way, though if you asked her to explain why she felt this way she'd be unable to put it into words.

She just knew it, as if by instinct alone, and for some reason she also couldn't explain, it was tearing her up inside.

"Why should I care what Idiot thinks of me?"

She hadn't cared before now, or at least she hadn't known she had cared before now.

Of course, everything had been the same between them up until a few days ago. Idiot had always been Idiot and doing his idiot normal stuff and everything had been just fine.

…normal.

…reliable.

…predictable.

"….perfect?"

The truth was that no matter how far off her rails she'd go, Idiot would always be his normal self and help keep the world around her steady, familiar, and…

…normal.

He had made aspects of her school life incredibly easy in this way. He had also inserted himself into her life in this easy and constant manner. So much so that a simple change in how he looks at her now was bringing her consternation greater than embarrassment, frustration, anger and even…..

…..grief.

She couldn't even admit to herself that he had been a form of security blanket for her these last couple of years.

No matter how much her family life sucked or enemies kept coming after her and her friends, there he was. His goofy smiling face greeting her every day. His easy-going banter with her bringing a smile to her face she didn't think she had in her. His constant presence by her side in mortal danger, the practice field, or in the classroom a reassuring constant in a life that had presented to her anything but consistency before him.

Like his chiseled profile, he had become a steady "rock" that Erika could depend on to always give her exactly what she had needed.

Stability and reassurance.

She just had to open her big mouth and insert both of her feet in at the same time.

Now things had changed between them and it was undeniably her fault.

What's worse was she actually cared.

"Why do I care so much? He's just Idiot!"

Even as she thought these words the emptiness of them rang hollow in her ears.

She had come to the awful realization that what "Idiot" thought of her, what Leo thought of her, actually mattered to her greatly.

"Arrrrrr!"

She stood up off her bed and roared her frustrations into the room around her with her hair in her hands. Pacing with just her right hand now pulling at her hair in frustration, she could think of no way to alieve her agitated state of mind.

She was about to throw herself onto her bed and scream in anger into her pillows when the glint of something on her desk caught her eye.

"Oh…..I had forgotten about…..that."

There was the data crystal she had taken from Toshikazu's desk before leaving his flat. The one that woman had mentioned.

"Pfft!"

Erika let out a dismissive sound and turned away from the desk with authority.

"Like I'd give her the satisfaction!"

Erika was still irrationally angry about her encounter with Kyouko earlier that day.

"What do I care what Pervert-nii had to say anyway?"

For some reason watching his video journal seemed to Erika as if she'd be giving him one more victory over her in a lifetime of harsh training and sadistic words and treatment that Toshikazu seemed to have taken unusual pleasure in administering to her.

Plus she didn't want to give his "lover" the satisfaction of capitulating to her request either, even if that woman had no way to ever know that she had.

She sat back down on the edge of the bed and scratched at the back of her head in mild frustration.

After a few seconds of trying to think of something else, she began to frown again.

Errant thoughts of "that guy" began floating with incredible ease in her mind once more.

"Ohhhhhh!"

She leap up once more and plodded over to her desk, snatching up the data crystal before forcefully plopping herself in the seat.

"Damned if I do, damned if I don't!"

Anything had to be better than dwelling on a problem she neither understood nor knew how to fix. Even if it meant diving into the depths of her perverted late brother's darkest thoughts.

She looked furtively at the data crystal in her hand as she let the lighting of the room cast small rainbows through its clear structure and onto her desk, floor, and walls. As she watched the colors move along she couldn't help but admit a reluctant level of curiosity of what dark gems of information she might find on that data crystal.

With a long sigh of resignation to the inevitable, she inserted it into the reading device. Immediately a holographic projection screen displayed in mid-air before her.

With an attempted look of disinterest on her face she allowed her eyes to peruse the glossary of the data crystal's information. Seeing a folder listed "Journals" she used a head tilting motion that caused the sensors in her room's HAR unit to open the folder in question. Seeing its contents Erika's eyes began to widen in surprise. Nearly ten thousand entries were displayed before her eyes, marked off into years and subdivided into months.

Having expected nothing so large and well organized from her usually lackadaisical eldest brother, she was admittedly surprised and slightly impressed.

"Whoa."

Her eyes hit the first entry's date, which was more than twenty years ago, well before Erika's own birth.

"What the hell?"

With a head tilt, again the system opened the file. A video appeared with a young boy's face on it. Erika couldn't help but sneer a bit at her eldest brother's youthful visage.

"You were a twerp then too, huh?"

As she thought this, the video began to play.

"Haha-san thinks that I…..um….it's August 24th."

The little boy in front of her looked frustrated to be doing what he was doing and even more frustrated at himself for having forgotten to give the date.

Erika had already recognized the date as a significant one. In the top left of the screen it was also displayed, with the year.

"His Shichi-go-san."

It was his fifth birthday. It also explained to Erika why he was in a hakama. Toshikazu notoriously hated wearing traditional Japanese clothing.

"Anyway…haha-san said that now that I'm a big boy I need to start keeping a journal."

He looked less than enthusiastic at this new daily task assigned to him by his mother. Clearly he'd rather be outside playing or engaged in some other form of youthful mischief.

"Lazy since birth. He probably wants to go torture insects and small animals."

Erika smirked at the screen as she rendered this harsh assessment.

"So it's my Shichi-go-san….."

Erika rolled her eyes at the banality of the five year old Toshikazu and ended the video with a head movement in the opposite direction from the one she had used before.

Back on the glossary screen she found the search feature for key words.

She sighed mentally as a deviant thought crossed her mind, and then she typed in her own name.

The first entry that came up was nearly four years later.

She sighed again, recognizing the date instantly. It was only a day before a significant event in all their lives took place, especially for her.

It was the day before her mother and she moved into the Chiba Dojo.

She paused here looking at the entry and date on the screen with apprehension. A sudden reluctance to continue and dread began to fill her heart.

She knew what Toshikazu might have to say beyond this point would dredge up old and bitter memories for her.

Surrendering to fear was something Erika refused to ever do though.

"I'm not afraid of him!"

With renewed determination and defiance, she activated the video.

She saw a very angry looking nine year old Toshikazu staring off to the side with his arms crossed defiantly over his chest. He directed a quick but angry glance towards the camera before looking off sideways again and pouting even more.

"Punk."

Erika unconsciously imitated her brother's demeanor while she consciously ridiculed him in her mind.

After what seemed like a long time he finally spoke.

"I saw ka-san coming out of the bathroom crying today."

His eyes briefly darted towards the screen again before turning away once more.

"I thought it was because of….."

Erika suddenly felt an unexpected pang of sympathy for him as the corners of his eyes moistened slightly. When he spoke again his anger had been replaced with a look of dread and fear.

"…..because of….'that'."

As she was a very young little girl then, Erika hadn't remembered much detail from this time in her life. She barely remembered her elder siblings' mother. She was never introduced to the woman formally and ever only saw her in passing. Most of the time she was in a wheelchair. The other times she walked with great difficulty. She was clearly frail and weak. On the even rarer cases where she made eye contact with the woman, their mother would only look away as if she had seen nothing at all where Erika had been standing.

Erika didn't understand then why this lady wouldn't acknowledge her existence.

Their mother didn't have much longer to live when her eldest child had recorded this particular day's journal entry.

Suddenly the nine year old boy in front of her wasn't the much despised "Pervert-nii", but a little boy who clearly knew what "that" meant for his mother and his own future.

For the briefest of moments she understood him and felt sympathy for him.

After all, it is the one thing she shared with all her siblings, even the hateful Sanae.

They all knew what it was like to watch their mothers die.

Unlike the times she had seen their mother alive, the woman's funeral was a very vivid memory in Erika's mind. Her mother and she had stayed far into the background but their presence was anything but ignored by the guests.

Some looks were just curious. Others, especially from the deceased's family members, were downright hateful. She can still remember the scornful looks and hateful words.

"Is that the slut?"

"Of course, and the love child."

"Love child? As if there is any love in that man's heart."

"Can you believe he's showing off his concubine like this, and at his own wife's funeral?"

"It's disgusting. They should all be ashamed."

Another vivid memory of that day was the hateful glares from her older sister. Every time Erika looked at her, her sister looked like she wanted her and her mother dead.

As for Toshikazu, he had refused to even look at them at all.

They clearly wanted no sympathy from her, and both returned the favor when Erika's own mother also died a few years later.

Only Naotsugu would spare her a smile, even though she knew how much pain he was in. He was also the only one to comfort her when Katori Anna Rosen had also passed.

As for the man that had made all this happen, he too had not spared one look towards his "lover" and their bastard that day.

It was as if they were ghosts to him.

That night her mother had cried herself to sleep with Erika held tight in her arms. Looking back with age behind her, Erika realized now that that had to be the night her mother finally realized that she would never be the next "Chiba-san".

Even at that age though, Erika knew neither of them belonged in this place, with these people, these…strangers.

She only wished her mother would have found the courage to leave. Erika had felt loved when they had lived with her grandparents.

"Then I figured out why she was really crying."

It had been but a brief pause, but now Toshikazu's anger was back in force.

"He's letting his…..WHORE…move in!"

Erika instantly felt all sympathy for her brother die an easy death. To be replaced by the usual and comfortable mutual scorn. Erika's eyes darted to the picture of herself with her mother that she kept on her desk shelf. Her jaw clinched along with her fists in silent rage.

"And that….brat, ERIKA, with her."

Two people, related closely by blood, but separated by time and death, now shared their mutual loathing of each other as if in the same room together once again.

"How could he do this to her, especially in her condition?"

Toshikazu looked as if he wanted to take his youthful fists and pound their father to death with them. Erika wished she could do the same to him, but his death "by stupidity" had robbed her of her revenge.

"HOW?"

Then the nine year old brother she saw on the image across from her suddenly let tears roll down his checks. As he spoke he wiped at his face furiously, hate and shame making an odd mixture across his visage.

"She loves him so much, but he disrespects her right to her face."

Erika couldn't disagree with his assessment. Having his lover and their child move in, even to an outbuilding and not the main residence, was a brazen and blatant act of disrespect; not just to their mother but her own mother as well. He should have put them up in an apartment nearby but out of eyesight of her and their other children. There had been no need to make the woman die with her "rival" already in her home. There would have been time enough later for Erika to be integrated into the family, had that ever been their father's intent.

Clearly the rest of her life had indicated their father had no such intentions though.

If their mother had thought Erika's mother was there to "replace" her, she had died misinformed.

"I hate him!"

He was screaming now. His rage at how their father was treating his dying mother had finally boiled over.

"I hate him so much!"

"Finally something in common?"

One was the heir to everything the Chiba Sword School was and ever would be. Heir apparent to everything their father and grandfather had built before them. The other an unwanted byproduct of two peoples' poor choices.

They had this one thing in common though.

Both despised their father.

Erika let this thought cross her mind with no understanding for her brother's plight at all in her heart. Their mutual dislike for one another clouded her empathy for him entirely.

"I wish he were dying instead of her!"

Even in her own anger, at Toshikazu's youthful harshness and their father's mistreatment of her and her mother, Erika had never wished their father to die.

She did however understand why in this situation her eldest brother would.

"And I wish that whore was dead too!"

Sympathy never returned to her, only the sensation of her grinding her own teeth in anger.

"And that damn brat with her!"

Erika went to slam off the video with her hand, but the angry visage of nine year old Toshikazu furiously slammed the record button off on the video before she could herself.

"…jackass!"

In frustration and rage she stood abruptly and paced the room again. She could feel her fingernails digging into the skin of her palms. She was clenching her jaw muscles so hard they began to hurt, the sound of her gnashing teeth accompanying these actions.

"Well who's dead now asshole?"

She glared at the glossary screen with contempt and scorn as she asked the question to the empty room.

"Huh? Can't answer? That's because you're the one that's dead you stupid asshole!"

Erika sat heavily on the bed leering at the display that seemed to mock her from across the room.

Then her eyes flicked up to where the picture of her mother and her was and she suddenly felt silly and a bit ashamed about how she was reacting.

"Why am I letting a dead man get under my skin like this? He doesn't even deserve my anger."

She tried to convince herself that she was worried someone had heard her acting like a child just then, but she knew at this time of night no one would be anywhere near her quarters. She was unwilling to admit to herself she was embarrassed that she had just taunted her dead brother's "ghost".

She hadn't wanted him to die, no matter how much they didn't get along.

In fact, she began to tear up.

She suddenly stood in anger.

"You don't deserve my tears either, asshole!"

She began making pronouncements again to her empty room.

"Not after the way you treated my mother and me! No way jackass!"

She crossed her arms and pouted as she began to pace again.

Her thoughts about the past and the anger it held for her raced incoherently through her brain.

Then as she paced, her eyes again drew themselves to the displayed glossary screen of her brother's journals.

She suddenly turned away with a self-loathing look on her face.

"Why am I beating myself up like this?"

She screwed up the corner of her lip towards one side in frustration.

"She knew I'd torture myself with this! That's why she told me about it! She knew my curiosity wouldn't let me ignore it. Quit giving into her!"

She stopped and turned, arms still folded over her chest. She leered with anger and suspicion where the holographic display was hovering motionlessly above her desk.

For just a brief moment, in a last act of defiance against the brother who had made her daily life hell for most of her existence, and the woman that had the audacity to pretend she knew him better than his own sister, Erika contemplated erasing the whole file.

All twenty-plus years of her eldest brother's daily thoughts and reflections, observations and confessions.

"His whole life…"

It would, admittedly, feel good to symbolically "erase" the last vestiges of the mind of a person who hated her and took perverse pleasure in beating her to a pulp on the dojo floor nearly every single day of her childhood.

"He doesn't deserve to be remembered, not by me!"

Then she sighed in resignation and let the idea drift back off to the dark and unworthy corner of her mind that had originally generated it.

First, "that woman" had her own copy, Erika was certain of it. So erasing this copy wouldn't really be revenge, just an act of silly petulance.

Second….

…..she just couldn't do it.

She was too curious to discover what terrible perversions Pervert-nii had buried in these files.

….at least that is how she justified not erasing them to herself.

Another sigh of resignation and again she sat heavily down before the display.

She chose a date to look at that was significant to her.

"See, you are a masochist, are you not?"

Chastising herself this way with a wry smile on her face, a subtle eye movement towards the journal entry for that day began to play and Erika braced herself for its contents.

It was the date of her own mother's death.

Now the image of her brother as a young man appeared on the screen, not much different than the way he looked on the day he too had died.

"What the…."

She had been prepared for anything, she had convinced herself, but seeing her heartless brother crying was more than she could have ever expected.

"Erika's mother is dead."

She couldn't believe he'd be crying for a woman she knew he partially blamed for his own mother's rapid demise.

"And I…."

He hesitated, with both shame and consternation showing on his wet face.

"…I…"

"What idiot?"

Erika asked out loud as if he could hear her, frustrated with his awkward hesitation to speak further.

"I went to the temple."

Erika shook her head at this in confusion.

"Huh?"

To her recollection Toshikazu was nearly irreligious. She could only remember him being at a temple for weddings or funerals. Her mother's services would be a few days later and she vividly remembered none of her siblings were allowed to attend, even though Sugu-nii had wanted to be there for her.

"And I…."

Now her left eyebrow crept up her forehead with suspicious curiosity.

"I begged the gods to forgive me."

Erika's eyes went round in astonishment at what she had just heard.

"I haven't forgot that I had foolishly wished them both dead when I was a child."

She simply couldn't process what she was hearing now, so foreign to her thinking that the brother she loathed so much, and who clearly loathed her, would ask the gods to forgive him for hating her and her mother.

"That I had prayed they, and father, would die instead of mother."

Though she hated him for it, she had understood his justification for hating them.

"And now…..I….."

Now though, her understanding of him was thrown into utter confusion for the first time in her life.

"All I could remember was that I had wished her dead, and now she was. So I…..raced to the temple and….."

Another interminable pause happened as Erika's tension built to a near furious pitch.

"…..I begged the gods to not hurt Erika-chan!"

"….you what?"

Disbelief swamped Erika's mind and emotions as she heard words flow from a mouth she never thought even capable of such words.

"I…..I don't know what I'd do if….."

Already at her wits end, Erika could barely tolerate the pauses of her brother's emotionally stunted speech any longer.

"…..If something were to happen to my imouto!"

"…..imouto?"

Never before had she been referred to in this way, as Erika-"chan" and especially as "little sister" by the usually cruel "Pervert-nii". He usually never even bothered to use an honorific with her name on the rare occasions he spoke acquiesced to speak it. He usually referred to her by a derogatory term or title.

"I know I didn't really have anything to do with her mother dying, but…..I'd never forgive myself if something happened to her."

Erika's eyes were as wide as saucers as she heard the words she never expected said by a voice whom she thought incapable of such speech.

"Who is this person?"

This was not the Kazu-nii she knew. The person on the screen before her, showing concern and… "love" for his "imouto", was not her brother.

Not THIS brother, surely not.

This man on the screen, with Toshikazu's face and voice, was a stranger Erika had just met for the first time.

"I only wish I could…..make it better for her. Father won't allow it though. Says we've come too far with her to let up, even now….even today of all days."

Erika blinked in confusion, but for the first time it was because she heard something not all-together unusual in this video.

"Come too far? Father won't allow….what?"

"And she has Sugu-kun to take care of her, but still…"

Toshikazu suddenly stopped speaking for a moment. As was his established style of talking on video he looked off screen somewhere most of the time, only turning to look at the camera for brief moments before looking away again to speak.

He turned his eyes towards the camera and laughed lightly before continuing with an amused expression.

"If she ever heard me speak like this….about HER, she'd think me the victim of some kind of body swap or something like that. An impostor replacing me or something."

"Well you're damn straight about that!"

It actually sounded like a more reasonable explanation for what she had just heard than her brother actually….caring….about her.

She then heard him release a long and mournful sounding sigh, which made her again focus on his image.

He looked tired and weary as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Only after a few seconds did he release his finger and thumb hold on his nose bridge and lower his eyes to the screen again with a sad and helpless expression.

"I wish I could help her. After all, I know what it's like to…"

His eyes moistened again and he bit his lower lip as he looked awkwardly away, clearly trying to recompose himself. Another sigh, another pause, and then his eyes again focused on something off screen before he spoke. Erika had rarely been in his rooms in the main residence, but she knew he was looking in the general direction of a picture of his late mother.

They apparently shared this tendency, to look towards their mothers' images in times of difficulty.

"I really wish father didn't make me play her villain all the time. Especially now."

With his last two words, his eyes flickered back to the screen but didn't retreat like normal.

A sudden chill ran up Erika's spine as those eyes seemed to look at her directly.

There before her, full of life though clearly downtrodden stared back the all too familiar face of someone she had, until tonight, thought she knew.

Yet now, he seemed a complete stranger to her.

Those sad eyes seemed to lock with her own and suddenly time and death disappeared between them.

That cold shiver intensified with each passing second as Erika began to more and more believe that she was looking at someone very much alive and very much in the room with her.

His eyes seemed to bore into her soul.

Was he really here, now, and from beyond the grave; here, with her?

Speaking to her?

Was this actually Toshikazu with her in this very moment, wishing to convey his thoughts to her?

"…those eyes."

She slowly reached her hand towards the holographic projection.

"…Kazu-nii….."

At that moment the "ghost" of her eldest brother broke eye contact, sighed resignedly, and a few seconds later ended his recording.

Erika sat there frozen, hand now stretched towards a display that once again was on the glossary page.

She could have been sitting there in that ridiculous pose, arm outstretched furtively, mouth dropped open in a shocked manner, for either three seconds or three minutes, she wouldn't know which it was, even after the "spell" was broken.

"…..what the hell?"

She pulled back suddenly and stared at her hand as if it were injured.

After what seemed an eternity but was merely seconds, she shook her head as if shaking out errant thoughts and cracked a wistful smile.

"I can be so silly, sometimes."

She was chastising herself again, this time for talking to her brother's non-existent "ghost".

She laughed a bit afterwards while still mildly shaking her head in self-bemusement.

Then she remembered something that had peaked her interest in what her late brother had said in the last journal entry.

She spoke a request into the search functions, his exact words that had caught her interest.

"Search for 'too far with her'."

Several search entries categorized themselves chronically before her eyes. More than she had expected.

She immediately eliminated all the entries dated before she began her sword training.

Most of the entries she pursued proved to be completely useless for her.

In one entry, a nearly terrified early teen Toshikazu looked like he thought he might be going to jail, or worse, for having administered a particularly brutal "lesson" to her with a heavy training bokken. Erika particularly remembered that beating early in their training.

"The medics had to come and treat her. Our family doctor even was called in."

He looked like he was about to bite his nails because of his frayed nerves.

"I told father I was sorry. That I hadn't meant too. I didn't want to hurt Erika-san."

She smirked at his words, thinking he was only concerned for saving his own skin, not the condition he had put her in.

"But father said I was being silly and reminded me that I too had once experienced a similar situation."

This statement made Erika again raise an eyebrow.

"He reminded me that a Chiba Swordsman has to take the hard hits of the bokken, to learn how to avoid the deadly slices of the katana."

"Right out of the old man's mouth."

It was a primary dictum of Chiba Sword Arts. Pain and failure were the ultimate teachers.

"He said going light on her would do her no favors, and could one day get her killed."

It may have been true, but that didn't mean Erika had to like it, or those who taught her this "valuable" but painful lesson.

Another journal entry, which because of the "interesting" subject matter she had allowed to go on far too long, was a very concerned looking mid-teen Toshikazu seemingly out of his wits that he had "gone too far" with one of the female acolytes at their dojo.

Looking to score some "juicy" and "racy" tid-bits of info, Erika was disappointed to learn that Toshikazu was only worried because the girl had let him feel her up.

Remembering this particular girl, Erika was surprised it had just ended there. She was the type that came to their dojo looking to score a magically significant husband, instead of sword training.

She had been very brazen in her approaches to Toshikazu, as Chiba heir, in particular.

She and her family wasn't high enough on the Japanese Magical social "totem-pole" to score a Chiba cousin, much less the future head of the dojo.

Of course, the girl probably hadn't realized that at the time, and she might have been under instructions from her family to have what some far too subtle people euphemistically called a "happy accident" to at least get some part of the Chiba legacy for themselves.

She had picked the right target though. Surely no one would have given her the "happy accident" more willingly than the lecherous Pervert-nii.

Erika couldn't remember what eventually happened with that girl, and didn't care enough to research her further, so she moved on.

A few more boring and pointless entries later and Erika stumbled onto one she wish she hadn't.

"Speaking of gold digging hussies."

This was her first thought when she heard mention of a particular person she'd rather forget about entirely.

"The Watanabe girl."

This entry was Toshikazu expressing mirthfully that he hoped his besotted little brother didn't "go too far" with the new young swordswoman he seemed to have fallen for with frightening ease.

"Way too much ease."

Erika thought this as she frowned with disappointment at her more revered younger elder brother's one true flaw, in her eyes at least.

Erika hadn't liked Watanabe Mari the first time she laid eyes on her, mostly because the girl and her beloved younger elder brother Naotsugu had instantly been attracted to each other. The fact that the interloper got to immediately train with her much respected Sugu-kun and she was still stuck with the brutal Pervert-nii also raked against young Erika's ego and nerves.

When flirtation on the dojo floor turned into romance between them and official dating, Erika remembered being disgusted for days over it.

She liked Mari even less now that she was Sugu-kun's fiancée.

"And now she will be his wife, and mother of the future of the Chiba Dojo as well."

Erika directed scorn at the image of her eldest brother who was probably near the same age then that she herself was now.

"At least if your dumbass self could have stayed alive, that woman wouldn't have become the future lady of this dojo too. Idiot!"

As if he heard her, and wanted to rub salt into her wounds, Toshikazu spoke next with a smirk of his own.

"You should have seen Erika's reaction to them flirting with each other."

Erika's eyes narrowed to suspicious slits at the sudden mention of her name.

"If looks could kill, she would have had poor Mari-san's head in her hands, dripping blood from the neck."

He smirked while looking off screen then before speaking again.

"Talk about an extreme brother complex."

Erika turned the playback off then.

"Jealous…..asshole?"

She asked the glossary screen before her this in her mind. Luckily for her she wasn't directly in front of a mirror then or she might have seen how enflamed her cheeks were with embarrassment.

She watched a few more journal entries, of no consequence, under that same search parameter as before when she suddenly remembered to check the time.

"Damn! What was I thinking?"

The date had changed nearly half an hour beforehand. This was way past her usual bedtime and training for her began very early on Sundays like every day.

She stood up and scratched at the back of her head with a frustrated look on her face, wondering how she had let herself become so tied up in Pervert-nii's journal that she forgot to go to bed.

"Hours!"

She shouted in consternation at herself, and she had barely scratched the surface of Toshikazu's lifetime of journal entries in that seemingly long period of time.

With a thought that she had done exactly what Kyouko had wanted her to do all along, a sudden look of disgust crossed her face.

She stood with that look on her face and went to retrieve her night clothes.

After putting them on she asked the HAR for a glass of water and sat on the end of her bed, sipping at it slowly and looking at the still open glossary page hovering over her desk.

As she did so, her features grew harder as she glared with increasing anger at the image.

"Ohhhhhhh!"

With this roar of frustration she stood up and marched back to the desk chair.

"I will NOT go to bed without some satisfaction for all this effort!"

She already knew the one date entry in her brother's long and expansive journal that would bring her some solace before attempting to get a few hours' sleep.

It had been a very special day for her and she knew the look of disgust and shame she would see on Pervert-nii's face for that date's entry would warm her heart with vengeful and defiant glee.

She activated the video entry for that day and sat back with a feral smile on her face, ready to bask in the memory of glory and vindication she had originally felt on that perfect day.

The video began to play.

He could have been in his late teens or early twenty's, but Erika knew it was the later.

He looked troubled as he stared off to the side in his customary style.

Honestly, she had hoped he would have been more angry or furious, but there was time yet for him to let go his complete self-loathing.

Then he finally spoke.

"Erika…"

Her body tensed in anticipation.

"…..defeated me."

A sigh of satisfaction and an every increasing smile creased her face when she heard him speak these precious words.

"She used a sudden Acceleration while I circled her in a wide stance."

Her memories matching his words, she couldn't help but take pleasure from the thoughts of her well-earned victory.

"She went right between my legs, completely surprising me. She caught my off leg with her hand, flipping me as she went through."

In her mind's eye she could still remember hearing and feeling the hard impact his body made with the wooden floor of the dojo.

"I was totally unprepared for it."

Indeed he hadn't been prepared for it. She remembered with growing satisfaction her own distinct pleasure from that unexpected triumph.

"Then, with my face in the floor, I felt her bokken strike right across my shoulder blades."

It had been his own usual "punishment" whenever Erika had allowed him in behind her. Finally returning the favor even now was one of her most cherished memories.

"It's the first time she delivered anything other than a glancing blow in our matches."

She was smiling now so much that her cheek muscles threatened to be sore if she continued.

"She was…"

Still smiling, she bit her lower lip in anticipation of his expected ranting and excuse making.

"…..amazing."

Suddenly the chair underneath her felt like it had disappeared.

"To see the look of stunned joy on her face as she stood over me."

She bit her lip again. That last statement was surely an aberration. Now he'd start to whine like the sniveling dog he was.

"She's never smiled like that at me before."

She imagined this sudden feeling of having no support under her was similar to what astronauts must feel in space. A complete disconnect from the world she knew.

"It was….."

She took a deep breath as he held his words for a second. Then her eyes widened in shock as a serene smile creased Pervert-nii's face.

"….beautiful."

Her eyes did not deceive her though she honestly wished they had.

He was smiling with…..pride.

"Of course, I made a fuss and said she just got lucky, I had to keep playing the villain, that's my assignment after all. But…."

She didn't realize it but her breathing had become erratic.

"…to be honest…."

Her pulse rate had also begun to climb.

"….I'm….."

She felt like one of those astronauts now. Completely weightless and detached from everything she thought she knew.

"…..proud of her."

"….what?"

Even to her, the tiny voice that asked this question to the void of her empty room sounded like that terrified little girl she had been when she first came here to her paternal family's home.

"She's worked so hard and I have never once let up on her no matter how much I wanted to and perhaps…"

Scared and confused, wondering why she was in a place where she was unwanted.

"…perhaps, it has all been worth it."

Now though, that tiny little girl's voice sounded as if her comfortable if hostile world had all been an illusion, shattered suddenly like a dropped mirror.

"She's been better than me with a sword for years now and her magic skills aren't that far behind me. I only ever beat her recently because of her lack of knowledge and experience."

That girl that had wanted her family to love her so badly when she was little had turned their apparent rejection of her into the fuel that fired her defiant soul.

"I seriously doubt I have more to teach her now that she is passing by me."

Now, before her very eyes and ears, the focus of her youthful rage was all but admitting that at least his own virulent hostility towards her had been nothing more than an elaborate lie.

"I can train for a hundred years and never match who she is right now as a magic swordsman."

Praise.

From the one who had daily tortured her.

Who had hammered her into the fine pointed weapon she had become.

"Father has been right all these years, Erika really is a great swordswoman and truly worthy of the Chiba name."

"….what?"

Again that tiny, scared, sad little girl inside her couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"When I told him and we watched the video of the session, I could see the pride in his eyes. He even smiled."

Not just her brother, but her dreaded and cold father too.

"He said that when Erika enters a magic high school next year she will do so with the Chiba name, and that he would, eventually, present her with Orochimaru."

She could see his chest swell and puff out as he said these words.

"That will be a proud day for me. To see my talented and amazing imouto hold one of our family swords in her hands. To see her make it dance through the air as only she can."

She saw his pride in her crease his facial features now.

"I only hope that father allows me to let up on her by then."

She saw the moister in the corner of his eyes as he spoke of her.

"Proud…of me?"

"I hope she can…one day…..understand why I was so hard on her."

Then he turned his slightly moist eyes onto her. Once again she felt the spirit of her dead brother looking into her soul from the past.

A moment later and his hand moved to stop the recording. The holographic screen immediately returned to the previous search page.

All was still and quiet in her room now, except for her heavy breathing, and the sound of her pulse thudding in her ears.

It was like the sound of a taiko drum pounding fast but with a gentle touch.

The sound of that drum was steadily building though, as was the increase in the raggedness of her breathing.

The drumbeat of her heart, the drumbeat of rage, was building to a an inevitable crescendo.

An explosion.

"ARRRRRRRRRR!"

She slammed her right hand hard on the side of the data crystal reader, sending it and the crystal flying across the room to smash into the far wall. As she did the holographic projection screen died a sudden death.

Staring at it in furry, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"LIAR!"

She grabbed an object from the shelf above her desk and flung it after where she had sent the crystal and its reader moments before.

"FILTHY, ROTTEN LIAR!"

Her intense eyes bore into the tiny data crystal laying on the floor now, as if it were Toshikazu himself.

"YOU HATED ME!"

Her lower jaw pressed her lower teeth hard into their upper counterparts, stinging her facial muscles.

"YOU TORTURED ME EVERY DAMN DAY!"

Her sharp nails finally broke the thick skin of her palms as she clenched her fists in rage. Piercing through callouses earned by holding the bokken and the blade repeatedly, hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

Callouses earned by facing off against…..him.

Her torturer.

Her ridiculer.

Her mocker.

Smirking his hateful and sadistic smile at her as he bashed her over and over again.

Taunting her as she lay on the floor bleeding.

Laughing as she cried in pain and humiliation.

She had earned these callouses like she had earned her hate for him.

Yet no matter how think these callouses were, her nails, like the utter stranger she had seen and heard in these journal entries tonight, pierced her well-earned callouses of hate as if they were made of paper.

"YOU HATED ME AND I HATE YOU!"

She was purposefully ignoring the torrent of salty water pouring from her eyes.

"HOW DARE YOU!"

She turned to her bed and pounded it repeatedly with both fists slamming down on it from above. She didn't even see the small droplets of her blood she flung as she raged on.

"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

Screaming at the top of her lungs, she continued to furiously beat her bed. She had no idea how long she did this for.

However long she had let this torrent of rage go on unchecked, she finally reached even her own high limit. Sweat now mingled with the tears on her face and blood on her palms. She collapsed backwards onto the much abused sleeping surface panting and exhausted.

"How dare you! How dare you strike at me from the grave! COWARD! Filthy COWARD!"

Her voice was scratchy now. Even her exclamations of furry sounded like pathetic wispy sounds now.

"How dare you!"

ShBreath escaping her mouth in great gasps, she looked at her bloody palms through reddened eyes, the wetness across her face now falling backwards towards her ears and neck.

"How dare you."

As she rolled over to her side, the tears continued to drop down her face unchecked. Again she heard that scared, sad,…..

"Pathetic, weak."

….lonely little girl she had once been.

Who was it she hated?

In her exhaustion, with sleep finally conquering her in her self-weakened state, her drowsy mind couldn't focus her hate anymore.

Was it her detached and cold father?

Her resentful and jealous Nee-san?

That dead brother of her's who apparently was a great big liar?

The slutty woman who tricked her into tonight's emotional journey?

The woman who should have protected her from all of this, but died and left her in the hands of these cold people?

….or was it "that guy" whose opinion of her now seemed to control her thoughts and mood?

In her last conscious thoughts, she realized it was none of them.

The person she hated, truly hated, was that scared little girl.

Weak, pathetic….

"…..sad….lonely."

She had thought she had killed that little girl.

She thought that that Pervert-nii of hers had helped her beat that pathetic girl out of her.

But after all, she had learned just tonight that he was apparently one of the greatest liars of all time.

And that scared little girl with the sad eyes was still buried inside her, just waiting for moments like these, moments of weakness, to come back out and haunt her.

"I hate you."

It was a whisper. One that dropped her into the darkness of exhausted sleep.

Who did she hate? Who did she really hate?

That person's name, she realized in just the flash of recognition, was the one person she could never defeat.

The person she truly hated was named….Erika.

That night she dreamed of being on the Chiba dojo training floor with a smiling and happy brother, who praised her and told her how proud he was of her.

This was a common dream for her, but before it had always been her much beloved Sugu-nii-sama.

For the first time, tonight the star of her dream was that other brother of hers.

"I have to try. I just can't let her go."

He looked so happy as he spoke about her.

"She's a once in a lifetime type of woman."

He didn't seem the least bit daunted by the task he had sat before himself.

"I have to convince her I'm worth it, even if I'm not."

He was so determined. So handsome and full of life.

"As soon as I figure out where Inagaki-san has disappeared to I plan to call her up."

A brief look of concern was soon replaced with that happy, determined look.

"She's got to give me a chance. I have to convince her."

He smiled into the screen with confidence. She felt that he was looking directly at her. She felt she could reach out and touch him and this horrible nightmare world of the last half year will be exposed for the illusion it had to be.

"And I will!"

He turned off the video recording with a wonderful smile on his face.

He was talking about the woman he loved.

He was talking about her.

It was the last entry in his extensive video journals.

It was the last words she'd ever hear from him.

Kyouko pushed back from her desk as the screen went back to the glossary page.

She could feel it welling up, deep inside her. She had held it back this entire time, but now that she couldn't focus on his admiring words and his cute face, she couldn't hold it back any more.

"I'm sorry."

She said it in a whimper.

She passed her hand over the data crystal and the reader and the holographic screen display turned off.

Her room became deathly quiet, except for the sounds of her breathing.

Then a few sobbing noises.

Then a tiny wail escaped her mouth.

"I'm so sorry."

She stood up and walked over to her bed, rubbing away the tears from her eyes as she walked. As she sat on the edge of her bed, she looked at her sobbing image in the mirror across the room from her.

"….fool!"

She spat out the harsh judgement against herself with pure vitriol in her heart.

"Stupid, stupid fool."

She turned from the image of herself with self-loathing and disgust in her heart.

"You're a damn fool Fujibayashi Kyouko."

She crawled into the bed, pulled the covers up over her to her neck, and grabbed a pillow into her arms.

"A damnable fool."

She let the pillow absorb her tears, wondering if she would ever fall asleep. Her mind raced and her eyes leaked and she again and again she reexamined everything she had done or not done that could have resulted in Toshikazu still being alive.

She hated the "her" she had been when she first heard of his death a few months before.

She had had the audacity to judge him a fool for recklessly following after his partner. She refused then to admit her feelings for him. Trying to make him the cause of his own demise in her mind was a subconscious way to protect herself from her own misunderstood feelings.

She had blamed him so she wouldn't have to point the blame at herself. Not the blame for his death, but for all that they could have been if she'd only not been so…..so…..

"…..afraid."

Fear of pain. The pain she had felt nearly half a decade ago when the man she was supposed to have built her life with had had the audacity to die on the battlefield at Okinawa.

In her pathetic attempt to isolate herself from that pain ever coming back she first ran to the military, and then she ran from Toshikazu.

She thought she was protecting herself from that pain.

But here it was again, and in full force.

But this time it was worse.

This time grief was tainted with regret.

"You deserved so much better."

She knew she wouldn't sleep now unless she took matters into her own hands. She activated the sleep inducer on her nightstand and settled back in.

The tears hadn't stopped yet. She'd be dehydrated in the morning.

She had been here before.

Grief was an old friend of hers now.

She started to feel the mind shutting effects of the sleep inducer working.

"…..good."

As the final thoughts of this emotionally trying day came to her mind, she saw the face of her long dead fiancé. He smiled at her and she spoke out to him.

"I love you."

She smiled at him.

"I miss you so much."

He smiled and gradually faded away. His face soon replaced by that of Toshikazu.

"I'm so sorry."

She called out to him.

"You deserved so much more from me."

He reached out to her with a grin and she swore she could feel his hand caress her check.

Then she said the words she couldn't say to him in life.

The words she couldn't even say now, least she risk the torrent of grief and regret overtaking her senses.

"I love you, Toshikazu-kun."

This was the only dream that night that she would recall when she woke the next day.

Tatsuya had spent most of Sunday morning working on ESCAPES in his basement laboratory.

The preparations for the Nine Schools Competition had diverted him significantly from his main project, so any chance to work on it had to be exploited, no matter how much Miyuki pouted when he went downstairs.

One more week of intense training, with the distraction of Mikihiko's brother's engagement party on Thursday night, and then the Nine Schools Competition would begin on the next Monday.

Three weeks after that, and his life and work should finally return to normal.

He hoped.

He had already been wrangled into leading this year's First High Thesis Team, so there was that to worry about. Yet if things went as planned, the Thesis Competition would coincide well with his ESCAPES research.

There was also the upcoming Student Council Elections before the Thesis Competition, but unlike the drama two years ago, it was a foregone conclusion that Izumi would succeed Miyuki in orderly fashion, so he hoped his involvement in that event could be minimized.

If he had learned anything from his time so far at First High though, it was to be prepared to be unexpectedly over-involved.

He knew Miyuki was planning something big for the student vote, but so far he hadn't pieced it together. He suspected that it would deeply involve him though, in one form or another.

"Like the Nine Schools Competition."

In a metaphorical way, he could feel her loving and gentle hand, constantly pushing him firmly from behind and into the limelight.

A small sigh escaped his mouth then, before he could replace the sigh with his coffee mug. As he drank, he thought on how her devotion to him was a great source of constant reassurance, but sometimes it was also very inconvenient. He knew the next challenge to his comfort was starting only eight days from now.

As if she could sense him thinking of her, the intercom transmitted her voice to him.

"Sorry to interrupt your work Onii-sama."

He cracked a smile at her obvious concern that she had irritated him.

"Not at all. Is everything alright?"

An unexpected pause followed, which instantly peaked his curiosity. He was about to cast out his special vision when Miyuki's reply stopped him.

"Nothing is wrong Onii-sama. It's just there's an interesting package that has arrived which I think you should see."

For someone as steeped in security procedures as he was, the words "interesting package" threw up instant warning flags.

"Have either of you opened this package?"

He hadn't intended to sound harsh, but Miyuki's apologetic tone indicated he had spoken with a bit too much authority.

"I'm afraid I have Onii-sama, but it's not THAT type of package, I assure you."

She had also determined the potential cause of his concern and instantly moved to quail his fears.

"It's from Kyouko-san."

This information peaked Tatsuya's curiosity in a different direction.

"Whom did she address this package to?"

Miyuki answered in an awkward manner.

"Well….me and….."

Tatsuya was wondering what it was about his seemingly innocuous question that was causing her concern.

"….Minami-chan."

Tatsuya's curiosity was now doubled in intensity. He even gave voice to it.

"How interesting. I'll be up shortly."

He killed the com line and stood form his seat before the monitors. As he did so he performed some basic stretching techniques. Even someone as situationally aware as he could become so engrossed in something interesting that he could neglect his body's need for movement.

After a few stretches he extended his hand over the console and the screens before him locked, defaulting to a screen saver. Even here, in his most secure location, he took no chances with vital data.

As he moved through the doorway to his lab he could sense the bioscanner register him leaving the room.

As he turned the corner and proceeded up the steps to the main residence, he pondered this "interesting package" from his colleague.

Tatsuya had known when thirty minutes previous the normal Sunday delivery had been made. This one included Miyuki's and Minami's custom made furisodes tailored for them yesterday. The delivery man, of course, was a secret Yotsuba servant who delivered the normal hand signals to Minami as they bantered lightly. To his knowledge neither was aware Tatsuya knew of any of this, or had deciphered the hand signals they used to communicate. Since Minami has yet to ever impart information that could harm them, Tatsuya had let the activity continue undisturbed. As such, after verifying there was nothing dangerous in the packages, he had turned off his special vision and returned to his work.

Just two evenings previous they had all shared dinner together with Kyouko. His only conclusion for her not brining this package with her to that dinner was that it was not in her possession at the time. Knowing what her next day's activity had been, Tatsuya speculated that it had to be related to her search of Inspector Chiba and Detective Inagaki's personal items, including their data files. Perhaps she had found something she wanted him to examine.

If this was the case though, she surely would have warned him to expect this package. She certainly would have addressed it to him and not the ladies of the house.

"Especially Minami."

Her inclusion as an addressee made Tatsuya wonder if this instead had something to do with Minoru.

The time for contemplation was over though as he opened the door and stepped out into the dining area where Miyuki and Minami both turned to greet him. Both were on their feet and Minami bowed when he entered the room, which elicited a responding head nod from him.

"Onii-sama."

Miyuki's smile beamed from ear to ear. As always, she was a vision of beauty and grace, even in an apron. Some might say especially because such an exquisite beauty was in an apron that it was especially beautiful to see her in this garb. Her reaction to his appearance, like normal, indicated supreme satisfaction that he was back in her immediate presence. Tatsuya briefly wondered if the package contents really were interesting, or if Miyuki had just grown tired of not having him by her side. He dismissed these thoughts as unworthy, knowing Miyuki wasn't such a frivolous person, as she happily slid in beside him and pulled him gently to the table by the arm.

On the table before them were several items Tatsuya instantly identified as someone's personal items.

"These are the things that were in the package."

Tatsuya listened to Miyuki speak as his eyes perused the sampling of items laid out of the table before him.

A few data crystals, two holographic picture holders, what looked like a police badge holder.

Minami picked that up and gave it to Tatsuya as Miyuki continued.

"Please take a look Onii-sama."

He unfolded the billfold style badge, expecting to see either Inspector Chiba's portrait of Detective Inagaki's.

His eyes reflexively widened and he involuntarily took in a sharp breath at the familiar but unexpected face on the portrait above the normal, shiny brass police shield below it.

For some reason he got a sudden burning sensation along his hands and forearms that ended almost without being registered by him.

"Onii-sama….its….."

Miyuki couldn't finish her words as she began to choke up.

Tatsuya turned a smile on her and used the arm she had her own arm still wrapped in to pull her slightly closer into him.

"I know. It is Honami."

Tatsuya knew several Sakurai series Guardians, present company included. While they all looked remarkably alike, there were subtle differences with each, both physically and in how they carried themselves. Even without reading her name on the placard below her image, Tatsuya instantly recognized this important figure from Miyuki and his owes lives by sight alone.

He would never forget her face, or her voice. It was one of the reasons he could accept Minami so quickly. They were the same, but yet so very different.

Both of their eyes drifted over to Minami now, who looked down on the table's contents with a sense of melancholy seeming to hang over her.

"These items belonged to Detective Inagaki, correct?"

Miyuki and Minami now looked up at him in slight surprise.

"Onii-sama, how did you know that?"

He smiled benignly to Miyuki as he answered.

"The other night Kyouko-san informed me that she had been assigned to review the late Inspector Chiba and Detective Inagaki's personal items, to ensure that as individuals with previous contact with the 101, that they had not left behind any information concerning the battalion."

Seeing both begin to understand his apparent clairvoyance, Tatsuya quickly concluded his explanation.

"Honami had retired from police service well before Erika's brother had joined, leaving the older Inagaki as the only possibility, given the source of this package."

Both ladies nodded understanding as their eyes returned to the table.

Miyuki reached for one of the two holographic picture frames, which activated the image at her touch.

It was an image of Inagaki and Honami, in civilian clothing, apparently at an amusement park. Honami was smiling so brightly that Tatsuya hardly recognized her. The Detective seemed equally ecstatic.

Miyuki nodded to Minami, who then turned on the other holographic frame. This one showed a rather proud looking Honami in her police uniform. A black band went diagonally across the right top corner of the image. While Tatsuya was certain Inagaki hadn't known the reason for Honami's death; that he knew she had died was painfully apparent.

Miyuki, looking even more concerned than before then nodded to Minami again, who handed Tatsuya an old fashioned three image film strip from a photo booth. The first image showed them smiling again. The next two images showed them kissing one another.

"I see."

Tatsuya said this calmly to the equally sad and awkward looking ladies with him.

"It appears they were intimate with one another."

Both girls looked even more awkward when he said this. Clearly they had deduced this without his help before he had come up, but he didn't know what else to say to them at this point.

He only hoped now that his forced smile wasn't awkward enough to make Miyuki question if he was disturbed by any of this. Minami already knew why Tatsuya could potentially find this info disturbing, but in truth he didn't. She, of course, wouldn't indicate any of this to Miyuki in any way.

"Kyouko-chan sent a letter as well."

Miyuki handed him a hand written letter.

[Dear friends,

Sorry I didn't give this to you yesterday, but the drama at Kazu-kun's flat distracted me before I thought to give you this.]

Tatsuya stopped reading there and looked up with a cocked eyebrow. He immediately saw both young women blushing slightly.

"Why are they blushing?"

Her words and their reaction to him reading them forced his curiosity out.

"Drama, at Kazu-kun's flat?"

His deadpan question made both of them blush even more profusely, forcing his eyebrow further up his forehead.

"Well…Onii-sama…it was….."

She seemed to have trouble finding the words she wanted to use.

"Very hot in the shopping district."

Minami's quick rescue propelled Miyuki forward.

"Yes! Very hot indeed, so….Erika-chan suggested we stop by her brother's flat to rest up and get a few refreshments, since it was nearby."

She looked very pleased with her answer, until Tatsuya asked another question.

"Where you obviously encountered Kyouko-san, and then…..'drama' ensued?"

Again both women blushed, and looked very put off.

"Well….you see…."

Again Miyuki lost her wording. Again Minami rescued her.

"Chiba-san took issue with Fujibayashi-san's presence in her late brother's flat."

Tatsuya twisted up the corner of him mouth then.

"Did she indeed?"

Erika hasn't been her usual self lately, but finding Kyouko in her brother's home going through his things would probably make the calmest version of Erika irate at the very least.

"At which point, I assume, the 'drama' in question began. How was the situation resolved?"

The unusual blushing immediately started again.

"Why is this so awkward for them?"

He couldn't understand why they would be embarrassed by events they were only spectators to.

"Well….Erika-chan…."

Miyuki only stumbled over wording when she thought he wouldn't like her answers, which made him even more anxious to get to the bottom of this situation.

"Was satisfied with Fujibayashi-san's reasoning for being there."

A third save of Miyuki by Minami.

"Well…..I wouldn't say she was 'satisfied' by it, but it diffused the situation."

Having been temporally saved, Miyuki volunteered too much information and restarted Tatsuya's inquiry.

"How did it diffuse the situation?"

His now completely serious attitude and demeanor indicated that he was in full-on investigative mode, much to their obvious discomfort.

"Um…..well….you see….um…"

Tatsuya was beginning to grow gravely concerned. Something that could make them both act this way could be a potential danger to them.

"It was related to a women's issue, Tatsuya-sama."

Minami's relatively quiet answer made both of Tatsuya's eyebrows rise in sudden interest. For Miyuki though….

"MINAMI-CHAN!"

Her embarrassment level, judging from her raised and near hysterical voice, and the bright shade of pink her cheeks and neck were now painted, had been mysteriously energized by this answer.

Her eyes darted several times towards Minami in disbelieving shock and away from Tatsuya in embarrassment.

'WE…..we don't…not in front of…."

"Forgive this one please Miyuki-sama!"

Tatsuya was amazed Minami didn't bounce her head off the table surface, so quickly had her full bow been made to her mistress.

"This one merely wished to relieve you of the burden of trying to explain such delicate matters to your intended. Please forgive this one's imprudence."

"Oh! Minami-chan! No, it's not like that!"

Now Miyuki was embarrassed that her panicked reaction had made Minami retreat behind the wall of Yotsuba enforced decorum and servitude that had been drilled into her since her youth.

In mild frustration at the whole exasperating situation, Tatsuya sighed lightly and spoke up.

"Minami-san, please raise yourself up."

Looking around tepidly, she slowly rose to upright with a contrite look on her face.

Miyuki looked equally contrite, as she now was avoiding looking at either of them.

"Um…um."

Tatsuya's mild throat clearing sound gave Miyuki the chance to speak calmly.

"Yes, well…Minami-chan is correct."

She spared the nervous looking Minami an awkward smile, which seemed to instantly cut the tension that had built around the table.

"It is….as she said….."

Her skin was clearly still flushed with embarrassment.

"…..a…..women's issue."

Tatsuya looked from one young lady to the other, each trying to avoiding his inquisitive gaze.

"A women's issue? A delicate matter?"

As both began to look awkwardly away again, he decided to end this strange situation for all their sakes.

"If you both will assure me that there is nothing to be concerned from this matter…"

Both nodded rather emphatically to indicate that this was nothing for him to worry about.

"….then I will accept that the mysterious goings-on at the late Inspector's flat yesterday afternoon are not my concern."

Seeing both of them deflate with relief was nearly comical to behold. The sound of mutual sighs of relief registered in his ears.

Tatsuya mentally shock his head at them in mild amusement. Had they said it was "women's issues" to begin with, he would have dropped it entirely and this distraction could have never took them so far off track.

Later, he would get the answers he needed from Kyouko herself, but for now he returned to the letter from her in his hands.

[As Tatsuya will explain to you, I had an assignment to vet the belongings of the late Inspector Chiba and his partner Detective Inagaki. You can image my surprise when I saw numerous images of Minami-chan in Inagaki-san's belongings. I quickly deduced from the information available that it was a young lady by the name Sakurai Honami. Given the name and her striking similarity to Minami-chan, I deduced that she was a close relative. After consulting with the Colonel, he informed me of the significance of Sakurai-san to both Tatsuya-kun and yourself as well. As Sakurai-san has no listed living relatives, and Inagaki-san's nearest living relative is a first cousin, I thought it appropriate to turn the items he had in relation to Sakurai-san over to the three of you. I figured that if these items don't belong to either of you three, then you probably would know who they do rightfully belong to and see that they get them. If not, then you can always return them to me and I'll see that Inagaki-san's relatives receive them instead.

Your friend always, Kyouko.]

Tatsuya looked up from the letter to see Miyuki and Minami looking awkwardly at the images of Honami and Inagaki.

"She looks so…..happy….doesn't she Onii-sama?"

Miyuki looked back awkwardly, as if seeking his approval for her comment.

He gave her a warm smile as he replied.

"She does indeed Miyuki."

She smiled back at him but then turned concerned eyes back to the images.

"She was always happy, and smiling."

Then Miyuki cocked her head sideways a bit.

"….but…."

He thought he knew where her thoughts were taking her. He smiled benignly at her as he gently pushed her thoughts forward.

"But what Miyuki?"

She gave him a quick glance before turning back to the pictures to reply.

"It's just….I don't think I ever saw her smile like that before."

"I have."

Miyuki quickly turned back with a hopeful look on her face.

"You did Onii-sama?"

For some reason he couldn't explain he was sure she had smiled like that at least once, but for all his rapid mental acuity he couldn't put that beautiful smile of hers that he knew instinctively he could see in his mind's eye with an actual moment in time.

A sudden pain seemed to reach out like a claw to squeeze the heart in his chest.

"To die for your sake is the greatest honor of my life."

He heard her voice, he saw her smile, he knew they were on Okinawa, and she lay dying on the sandy hill by the beach; but this moment in time he knew was real couldn't be linked to any event in his memory. It didn't match up to his perfect recall of that long and exhausting day.

"Onii-sama, are you alright?"

Suddenly a very concerned looking Miyuki filled Tatsuya's entire vision. He could sense Minami tensing up to the side as well.

He had to defuse this quickly.

"Of course, perhaps I didn't have enough of your wonderful breakfast today."

Delivered with his best "don't be concerned Miyuki" smile, she nodded understanding and gave him a smile that didn't quite erase the obvious concern in her eyes.

"To answer your question, yes, I saw her smile like this on a few occasions."

Miyuki continued to look suspicious.

"I don't ever remember her looking quite this happy though."

He smiled at her reassuringly.

"That's because she was looking at you with this smile when you weren't looking directly at her. She took great pride in your continued achievements."

Miyuki blushed a bit and smiled. Tatsuya had hit the mark and relieved her concerns with ease.

To his side however, Minami and he shared an awkward look. For some reason he was certain that she thought he was lying to Miyuki, yet she also seemed to understand why. She even looked at him with.

"…..pity?"

For obvious reasons, Tatsuya wasn't an expert in emotions. Minami quickly broke eye contact with him and also smiled benignly to the restored looking Miyuki, but Tatsuya was certain that she had known that while most of what he had said to Miyuki was covered in layers of truth, the core, that glowing smile, had never been given for Miyuki's sake.

"But…"

He knew he too had received that smile, at least the one time.

The one time that in his mind had no anchor to his actual memories.

He suddenly remembered another time when something else he remembered couldn't be anchored to the facts.

The sound of a woman's mournful lullaby began to play in his mind.

"I'm sure she also gave you this smile too Onii-sama."

The sound of the melodic voice of the one person he could truly love broke him free from the errant thoughts that threatened to expose his inner weaknesses.

"After all, she was very proud of your accomplishments as well."

Delivered with her beautiful smile, Tatsuya could only smile back and nod agreement.

Yet when Miyuki looked back at the table's contents again, Tatsuya once again sensed Minami's eyes turned towards him with…..

"….pity….."

He cut his eyes sharply at her and he could feel his face tense with…

She took such a sharp breath when she turned from his glare that even Miyuki looked up to notice.

"What's wrong with me?"

Had he truly been angry with her just now?

How could that even be possible?

He quickly plastered his benign smile back on his face as he pondered why he was suddenly losing control of his….

"But I don't have emotions, not strong ones anyway."

He had to diffuse Minami's concern and Miyuki's sudden curiosity as to why their companion had made such a sharp noise.

Miyuki looked as if she were about to ask Minami what was the matter with her when Tatsuya turned to her and spoke instead with a benevolent smile.

"I believe that Minami should have these things. Don't you Miyuki?"

Though she still wouldn't look at him, Minami's eyes did widen a bit at Tatsuya's unexpected suggestion.

On the other hand, Miyuki turned to look at him directly with adoration and glee.

"Oh, Onii-sama! That is a perfect idea!"

She clapped her hands together and turned that irresistible beaming light only she could project full force onto the still nervous looking Minami.

"After all, you are basically dear Honami-chan's closest living relative."

"Well, that's not necessarily….."

Her attempt at refuting Miyuki's assertion was killed instantly by Tatsuya adding on.

"I'm certain Honami would be pleased to know that Miyuki's Guardian was the one who would inherit the evidence that Guardians are more than just servants, but worthy of their own lives. Which is exactly what we see before us now on this table."

He swept his free hand over the table to indicate the evidence of Honami's humanity, and her love for another person that she wasn't "programmed" to love.

"Honami was more than a servant to all of us, and especially to Detective Inagaki."

They all looked down at the obvious evidence of his love for her.

"He loved her, not as a creation, or a tool; but as a woman."

Tatsuya looked intently at Minami who finally but timidly returned his gaze.

"As a person, and worthy of her own life."

He turned his smile on the still beaming Miyuki, and extended his hand out for her to joyously grab hold of. As he pulled her close into him he again turned to Minami as Miyuki looked on his profile with growing ardor.

"We loved her too, as a person who was most worthy of our love as well."

An unintended side effect of his speech had clearly been stirring up the constant romantic feelings for her beloved inside of his fiancée.

"OH! ONII-SAMA!"

His "admission" of love for their long lost friend and surrogate "Onee-chan", and his impassioned speech for Honami and Minami's rights to love and life had driven her into a loving "frenzy". Regardless of Minami's presence, Miyuki nuzzling her head on Tatsuya's chest, clearly indicated that she wanted to get even closer to him than clothing would allow.

"If you can find even the slightest inspiration to live your own life by her example, then we know that she would be glad to know this record of an important part of who she was now belonged to you."

Miyuki took a slight break from stroking her beloved "brother/cousin-fiancée" cheek to emphatically agree with him, as usual.

"She would indeed! Please Minami-chan, we insist, this all belongs to you."

As Miyuki immediately returned to her affectionate admiration of him, Minami shyly conceded to their wishes.

"If that is your wish."

Both nodded in unison, Miyuki with a death grip on Tatsuya's right side, to confirm their wishes.

"Then I will do as you instruct, and try to learn from Honami-sensei's example."

She again, timidly, looked at Tatsuya who smiled and nodded agreement.

Still, the look in her eyes said that while he might have been half-successful at assuaging her earlier fear caused by his errant facial expression, it was very apparent it was only half-successful.

Half-successful would have to do for now though.

As Minami replaced Inspector Inagaki's mementos of Honami back into the box Kyouko had sent them in, Tatsuya looked to his right at the "side-effect" problem he had created.

"Oniiiiiiiiiii-saaaaaamaaaaaa."

Miyuki's breathing had grown heavy and her voice had lowered into a sultry purr.

"I love you so much Onii-sama."

He awkwardly cut his eyes toward Minami, who by her own awkward attempt to busy herself clearly indicated that Miyuki's affection for her "brother" was something she wanted to get away from quickly.

But if Minami escaped the room before he had distracted his amorous imouto…..

"Miyuki."

She looked upwards to him from where her head lay in the crook of his neck with hooded eyes.

"Yes…..my love?"

He uncharacteristically was forced to nervously swallow before proceeding.

"Since we will be extremely busy for the next month, why don't Minami and you pick a movie for us to attend tonight?"

Miyuki's eyes immediately grew in size and she finally stood back to look at him with glee.

"Really, Onii-sama?"

If there was one thing she loved more than being in a romantic relationship with him, it was being in that same relationship, but in public.

Where hopefully the "being in public" part would help contain her "enthusiasm" for him.

He nodded affirmation and he replied to her.

"Why don't you and Minami go and find out what is out there we can watch tonight."

"Right away Onii-sama!"

She kissed him on his cheek before pulling back and blushing with just the perfect amount of shyness.

"She is truly exquisite."

He couldn't help admire her as she bounded happily for the stairway after grabbing Minami by the arm.

"There's this one movie we should see but I'm not sure if it's still playing."

Before turning towards her mistress who was now dragging her along in her wake, Minami spared Tatsuya a brief glance.

For the briefest of moments Tatsuya again thought he saw pity in her expression.

No, not pity.

It was fear.

It wasn't the first time she had looked at him with fear in her features, and it probably wouldn't be the last time either.

It wasn't something he was in a position to affect at the moment though.

As soon as he was certain they were out of ear shot of him he calmly proceeded to the main floor water closet.

With the door closed and locked behind him he took a deep breath and held on to the sides of the sink before him while leaning over.

The feeling of that figurative claw that had been squeezing at his heart from earlier had yet to truly dissipate.

He had maintained his composure, or at least thought he had from his observations of his companions' reactions, for the entire time since first seeing Honami's image in the badge holder.

"What is wrong with me?"

He had no explanation for the pain in his chest.

He couldn't even be sure what he was feeling was pain, since it was mysteriously both incredibly similar to physical pain and yet so very different at the same time.

He allowed his breathing to get slightly out of control as he pondered the hard sensation inside of himself.

He knew from Elemental Sight that nothing was wrong with him, but still, he felt it inside of him.

He also remembered the pain of his arms and hands burning, but like the memory of Honami's brilliant smile from earlier, he couldn't attach this new pain to a point of time in his memory as well.

And this was not the first time he had been in this same position.

"I thought I had moved past this."

And yet the mysterious pain was back again, and there was still no explanation for it.

He looked up into the mirror and saw a face he didn't recognize.

It was tight and frantic.

"This is not you."

And like the machines he often compared himself to Tatsuya stood up, and pushed this "pain" from himself.

After a few minutes, he finally began to recognize his features again.

Impassive, distant, cold, logical, these were the features of the man he knew. The weapon Shiba Miya had fashioned him into.

This cold-blooded human machine was who he recognized instantly.

This was Shiba Tatsuya.

He took one last breath and walked out of the water closet, seemingly leaving behind the pain he couldn't identify and the weakness it produced in him.

Shiba Tatsuya was no fool though.

He knew, like the previous times before, this pain had been no illusion, and would strike at him again one day when he least expected it.