Disclaimer: Nuriko is the property of Someone Else Besides Me. ~.^;;

Warnings: This is pretty short. Scratch that: this is very, very, very short. Shortness was not intended. Forgive author if shortness has caused any inconveniences, or has led respected readers to exclaim, "Why the heck did she even post this?? It’s too darn short!"

No spoilers if you’ve already read the first one. ^_^ As for the Cheese-o-meter…. umm…8? I dunno if this counts as angst…I put it just in case. I’m a bad classifyer. **hangs head in shame**

At first, when I awoke, I didn’t remember that I had died. But it bit into me like a thorn after a moment, a living thorn that kept pushing itself deeper and deeper.

Alone again.

I rubbed my eye and raised my head with a sigh, drew myself slowly to my knees. It was still dark, but I could see my hand in front of my face; strangely enough, after looking around, I could find no source for the light. It was almost as if I myself were a sort of lantern, lit up somehow from the inside.

How long had I slept?

Standing up, I tried unsuccessfully to straighten my clothing. Oddly enough, there was a slight, soft bulge in my sash. I poked at it with a puzzled frown, not remembering having put anything there…curious, I reached in and pulled it out.

Hmm. A purse.

Still at a loss as to the contents of the thing, I untied it and stuck my hand in, only to pull it back out clutching a fistful of soft, purple hair. I stared at it in silence, frozen—"Nuriko, your hair!" "What’d you go do a thing like that for?" "Are you all right?…Are you sure?"—my hand began to shake, and when I blinked, I was startled to feel dampness under my eyes. How…

Without warning, the ground beneath me rumbled and shook, and my thoughts were torn away from me in a flash of pain in my chest. Letting out a small grunt of pain and surprise, I staggered…my hand moved reflexively to my heart, and the tress I’d hacked off unraveled and fell loosely into the blackness. "Nggh!" I uttered through clenched teeth, eyes widened in horror at the nothingness before me. What in the world is happening?? Why does my…What’s…

…And then it stopped, as suddenly as it had begun. And I had the strange, terrible feeling that…I wasn’t alone anymore.

TBC…..

Well, this was originally gonna be a bit longer…but it seemed like a nice place to end.

In other random news: Look! It’s Tamahome!! à $,$

**passes out on the floor because she is SOOOOOO incredibly funny…** ~.~()

^_^