By Kasou

When they got to the restaurant Kurei walked up to the maître d' and said something in French.

"Our table isn’t ready yet, so we can sit by the bar, if you want." Kurei said.

"Okay!" said Kotohonou as she and Kurei walked to the bar. Tokiya presided to follow but was stopped by Kaosu.

"Listen, Tokiya, we need to talk." Kaosu said.

"What about?" Tokiya asked.

"Tokiya, I know you have feelings for Kotohonou and she has feelings for you. I’ve been protecting her from any sort of suffering my entire life. She is the only real friend that I ever had and it is important for me that she never has to suffer, like I have. What I’m trying to say is…" Kaosu sighed and glared at Tokiya, "…if you make her cry, before her tear can roll off her chin, I will hunt you down and kill you."

"She has a very good friend." Tokiya smiled and said. Kaosu smiled and she and Tokiya joined the others.

"Look Tokiya!" Kotohonou cheerfully said, "A karaoke machine! Let’s go!" she grabbed his arm and dragged him to the stage. Kurei and Kaosu were left at the bar while Tokiya and Kotohonou sang It’s Gonna rain, a song from an anime series called Ronin Kenshin.

"I didn’t know you spoke French. What other languages do you know?" Kaosu said trying to start a conversation with the rather cold Kurei.

"I can fluently speak English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese…"

"Ok, so you can practically speak any language in the world." Kaosu said as she shook her head in disbelief.

"Well, what languages do you know?" Kurei asked.

"I can speak English, some Spanish, and Japanese." Kaosu said.

"Well, of course you can speak Japanese, I mean, the whole country speaks Japanese."

"Yeah, well, I can speak it so it’s one of the languages that I know and besides you didn’t say you knew Japanese, so there."

"I didn’t think I had to."

"Well, you do." Kaosu quickly said.

They both sighed. Kaosu smiled and said as she looked at the stage, "I can’t believe she got him to sing!"

"She’s so weird though. She’s a very…" Kurei paused and thought, "happy person. Do you ever get tired of it?"

"No."

"Of course you said ‘no’, you’re like that too, only not as much." Kurei said as he turned to Kaosu.

"Well, before I met her, I used to be a lot different. I try to be as happy as she is but sometimes… I just don’t know."

"What were you like before you met her?" Kurei asked. He was becoming more and more interested in her life, she had lived for over 300 years, the things she must have done and the places she visited, her past intrigued him.

"Different." Kaosu said plainly.

"HOW different?"

"Very." She said coldly.

"How come you never talk about yourself?"

"Because."

Kurei was getting a little frustrated. "Hana-sama, tell me about your life!" He said as he raised his voice. Other people in the bar turned around, but then went back to what they were doing. Kaosu looked around the room, Tokiya and Kotohonou were now singing their third song, she glanced back at Kurei.

"You want to know! You reeeally want to know!" She said angrily, "I’ll tell you! I was a lot like you!"

"Like me? What do you mean?" he asked.

"You know what I mean! You have the same look in your eyes like I used to have! When I was a…" she sighed, "…slave my reason for living was to take lives, didn’t matter who they were, or how old they were, it didn’t matter. Then I met Kotohonou and she changed me. I learned how to cherish life, and my own. My reason for being changed, I had a purpose, to shape a future that’s all balanced between good and evil. But now, now it seems like I’m not needed any more. It doesn’t matter what happens to me anymore. And whenever I fight, as you already noticed, I change back to who I used to be, the killing machine. So you and I are the same. In the beginning, our purpose in life was to take life and the result…killing doesn’t matter, nothing matters…and it still feels that way." Kaosu said as she turned away.

Kurei was shocked. He didn’t think that she could have ever been like that. "I…don’t know what to say…" Kurei said.

Kaosu shook her head, "Let’s just forget about it, this conversation, we’re supposed to be having fun." She sighed, "Why don’t you go see if our table is ready." Kurei left, and Kotohonou and Tokiya returned to the bar and sat next to Kaosu.

"Tokiya, you have such a lovely voice!" Kotohonou chirped. Kurei was talking the maître d' and then motioned them to come into the restaurant. Kotohonou wrapped her arm around Tokiya’s and walked towards the restaurant. Kaosu sighed and followed them.