Chapter 2

A haunting noise woke me up. It was later at night, a time when everyone in the whole town is suppose to be sleeping like I was.

*Nani?* My senses told me something was wrong – because I don't usually jerk up in the middle of the night. My eyes scanned around the dark room. Then I heard it. People's urgent voices was coming from outside. It sounded wrong, terribly wrong. They weren't only voices, but a combination of screams and shrikes and wails. Like a sound from the deep agony of hell. Before I could find out what was going on, my door flung open.

'Kurapica,' Kaze gasped in thankfulness as soon as she saw me. She was still in her day clothes, probably because she didn't have time to change before heading to bed.

'What's going on?' I asked.

Kaze shook her head, ' I don't know.' There was a deep worry between in her eyes. Something told me she hadn't said everything she knew.

'Kaze, Kurapica,' Dad joined the party in a serious manner. 'Listen carefully. There are some people destroying our place and killing people. Some houses are on fire right now so I've got to help out. Our house is among the luckier ones that are still okay.' He paused to look at Kaze and me intensely. 'Kaze, I want you to look after Kurapica. Don't go outside no matter what, it's too dangerous and I mean it.'

Kaze promised. Anxiety filled her face, 'Who is it that's attacking us?'

'I don't know.' Dad said with a frown. 'I have to leave now. Be careful.' Then he left.

'You too,' Kaze cried after him. After dad left we locked all the doors and windows and closed all the curtains. We didn't dare to put a light on. Then we sat on my bed. Kaze kept shifting her legs nervously, as if something was constantly biting her. I wasn't doing much either, just looked around the room, which wasn't very interesting. If someone gave me a test of which tiles have stains or the number of dust in the room, I'd probably get it all correct.

Some more time passed. Kaze stood up and began walking in circles. I always wondered if that really helps to release tension. It got pretty annoying. I couldn't blame her though; it was hard to stay cool with desperate screams and cries all around you. I tried to remain calm but it was difficult. The noises were awful. I never thought sound can ever shatter ones mind but I believed that right then. It wasn't only the sound that was torturing me, our conscience was also screaming at me at the same time, yelling 'Go out and help! Go out and help!'. I was sure Kaze wanted to help as much as I did. We just couldn't, not able and powerless. Our help wouldn't have a difference to the final result. We were only children. Even Kaze was in her teens. I hated to be so helpless. It's the worst feeling.

The next sound same so loud that made us jumped. I shot glance at my sister. It was unmistakable, the sound. I was absolutely sure what it was; so did Kaze.

Someone just broke in by kicking down the front door. I grabbed my twin swords that were resting against the wall. Unfortunately I only began my training last year so I hadn't master the weapon yet. But I thought I could at least protect Kaze myself a bit, not like totally defenseless.

Kaze was busy stacking every piece of furniture in my room against the room door. The old shabby bookcase, the bed we'd been sitting on, chairs, boxes, anything she could get her hands on. I thought she looked like one of those people in a game show, who they could have everything they could grab in a minute. If she entered that show I think she had a good chance of grabbing us a year's supply of washing agent.

Suddenly the door, shattered tremendously, like it was going through it's own earthquake. Obviously, someone was trying to get in from the other side.

I looked at Kaze. She was biting her lip really hard. Her face was the colour of ash. She stared at me hard, thinking how on earth we could get out of this hopeless situation. I should've expected this. But why didn't it occur to me before? I cursed myself for not thinking completely.

Kaze's eyes lit up if she found a solution to a math problem she couldn't solve for weeks.

She kicked away the rug under her feet and grabbed some sort of a handle from the floor. 'Kurapica, help me with this.' Kaze pulled really hard. I got to the other side and summoned all my strength. Gradually, a trap door emerged and opened up slowly.

I was sweating from head to toe. That trapdoor weighted a tonne! From the top I cold see the concrete trapdoor led to something like an underground storage. The faint light from my room showed us parts of boxes and things from beneath.

'What is this?' I asked.

'This was used ages ago, back in the war times. Back then when there were air raids, people used to hide under their houses. Although a few years ago Dad started using this as a storage area for all his junks.' Kaze said quickly.

*This might just work.* I thought. *The person behind the door probably isn't sure anyone is in the house.*

The door roared again. This time the force was so great that it knocked down the bookcase. Both of us managed to get out of the way in time. It'd be a matter of seconds for whoever was on the other side to come in.

'Quick, get under there,' Kaze said to me urgently.

'But I only fits one person!'

'Then you go in,' Kaze took a look at the shattering door then back to me.

'I'm not going in without you!' I said angrily. I wasn't prepared to have my sister sacrifice herself over me. No, I wouldn't allow it to happen.

'Look, Kurapica!' Kaze suddenly pointed out the window with a shocked look.

I looked the way she pointed but saw nothing unusual. Before I could ask anything Kaze shoved me down and slammed the trapdoor on top of me. At the same moment, the door of my room burst open.

Author's note: The story is finally getting somewhere. This chapter is slightly shorter than the previous one. The reason is I'm not lazy, but I wasn't sure where I should cut off. Do you all hate me for ending the chapter here? ^^;

Come to think of it, this fic would be really weird if Yoshihiro starts to talk about Kura's past. All this is going to be irrelevant and totally doesn't make sense -_-