Chapter 6


Shirushi wasted no time getting down to the elevator and jamming in all the buttons.  She just wished they'd understand what the hell had just happened. 
Of course, they didn't, and she was pretty upset about it. As soon as the elevator stopped making the frenzy that she had caused with the abuse, it opened. 
The sign read "Maternity Ward/Gynecology". 
She sighed irritably. "What the hell, might as well go in." She just wanted to get away for a while. Nobody coming after her, leaving her as she was for a few minutes so she didn't have to cause damage to anyone or anything. 
 she thought. 
Of course, she knew that someone *would* come after her. She already felt it coming, but for some reason the presence wasn't anger or rebuke, she knew what those were already. But more or less understanding what she did. Probably Subaru. 
"All these babies," she said, watching the nursery. "Damn, they're cute," she murmured in English. She saw a few couples with the happy mothers watching from wheelchairs, watching the new lives brought into the world. A few new godmothers/grandmothers. One man was raising a little boy up so that he could see his sister better. 

A light step was heard beside her, and she turned to see Subaru next to her. 
"Upset, aren't you?" he asked. 
"Yeah. . .I could just kill him right now. . .or later. . .I'm angry, I'm sad, I feel guilty. . ."
"I understand. . .you lost someone too, haven't you?"
"Didn't I tell you that I lost my family?"
"One of them was important to you."
"Nii-chan. . ." Shirushi murmured. "I don't think I could have turned out better without him. It hurt when he died. . .he said he wouldn't leave me. Kept me from getting beat up too much at school, and he taught me a lot of stuff. I loved my brother. Then Motomi had to kill him. . ." she inhaled and slammed her fists on the edge of the window. "Goddammit, I wanna KILL that sonnuvabitch!! After what he's done to everyone I cared about!"
Subaru quietly watched her, green eyes merely reflecting his serenity, leaving the air open for her to proceed. 
"After he died, everything went downhill except for my grades. I don't know why. For some reason I want to study when things are wrong. My mom tried to kill herself god knows how many times, first with the car, then with the bathroom cleaner, then with the pills, and Dad keeps on finding more excuses to stay out late. All this during the rest of the year. They're wrapped up so much that they don't give a fuck whatever I do in the ninth grade, no sympathy or rebuke from them. If you look back on my transcript you'll see that I got into a lot more fights. And now Motomi had to go and do this to Kamui-chan. . ."
Shirushi clenched her fists, actually frowning. "It's too much. Soon I won't have anyone left, not that I probably have anyone left now. . ."
It was at this time Subaru spoke. "I felt the same way when neesan died."
"Neesan?"
"Hokuto-chan. . .my twin sister. . .she died so I wouldn't have to."
"Who killed her?"
". . . . . ."
"I told you who killed Shinya. So who killed Hokuto?"
". . .Seishirou-san."
"Seishirou? That guy who was attacking me?" Shirushi saw a slight contort of pain in Subaru's face. "What's wrong?"
"That's where what you have in common and what I have in common with the past stops. You don't care about Motomi-san at all, so killing him is easier for you. Seishirou-san. . .I loved Seishirou-san. I have to kill him, though, for Hokuto."
"You still love him, don't you?" The question was asked in a monotone, but still direct. 
Subaru looked at her, surprised, and nodded. "You're very direct with these things."
"I'm sorry," Shirushi stared off into the distance, glasses reflecting all those babies in the nursery. 
"Just like Hokuto," Subaru said, turning towards her. "She was always direct with everything. You-you remind me a lot of her. She always dressed her own way, and she'd dress me up too. And how strong she was. . .she'd always be happy, and just like you now, she risked her life just so someone else could live. She never really cried either. Always seeming like everything was all right, just like you."
"You know," he continued, "she also was a good talker, just like you. It's not that no one likes you. If you wait around, then maybe it might be the other way. In fact, I like you."
"That's good," Shirushi said quietly. "It was always like that in school, everybody treating me like a little kid 'cause I was younger than they were by two years or so. Actually, you wouldn't really notice it if it weren't for my height and that I didn't take Driver's Ed till senior year. . .but even when I took difficult classes they thought I was still a little kid. You don't treat me like that. You treat me like I'm old enough to know what you're talking about."
"Isn't that what people want?" Subaru said. 
"Yeah. . .that's why it's probably better here. People actually act like I count as a person. . .of course for actually caring about me, that's different. But for right now counting as a person is enough."
They stood there for a few minutes, with an somewhat mutual silence in between them. 
Subaru had noticed that Shirushi had been acting stranger as the time passed on. Normally she would have been carrying on with animated conversation about almost anything, like college pranks she had played, specific quirks about her professors, the store she worked in. But now, she was quiet and still, and it looked like right now he was the only person she could talk to without feeling uncomfortable. Her hands now just lay at her sides, instead of moving along with her speech, the way her fingers could flicker and wiggle about when she talked. Now it looked as if they had died. 
"Oneechan!!" Just then Yuzuriha ran down to them. "There you are! You're not mad at us, right? Karen didn't mean to slap you, you know. She was just a little angry."
Immediately Shirushi's face became more devoid of emotion. She turned her head-almost robotically, Subaru noticed, and nodded. 
"I understand."
Subaru walked with them to the elevator, and when it had opened, Shirushi tried to do something with it. 
"Shirushi, what are you doing?" he asked. 
"We're on the fifth floor, right?" she responded. "I'm trying to get us there."
"Don't try anything funny unless you want me to push you in the room-alone."
"Hai."
Now Yuzuriha was worried. Shirushi didn't act like that! She would have probably tried to push in all the buttons or at least do her normal pressing the open button routine.

Instead, Shirushi was leaning against the wall looking out into nowhere. If Yuzuriha hadn't known any better, she would have thought that she was trying to be cool. Yuzuriha wondered about it as the elevator opened and they continued the journey to their destination in silence. 


There was a soft knock on the door, and it opened to reveal Subaru, Shirushi, and Yuzuriha.
"Shirushi, where did you run off to?" Karen asked, but Subaru responded. 
"I met up with her in the maternity ward," he said. 
"Why were you there?" Karen asked, but this looking straight at Shirushi. 
"You expected me on this floor?"
"Don't talk back to me."
"No, Karen-san, I am not talking back to you."
Realizing that they wouldn't get anywhere with this, Karen sighed. "All right. Why did you run off?"
"I needed to remove myself from a hostile-feeling environment so that I could resolve my emotional being without causing harm to others."
"We speak normal level Japanese, Shirushi," Aoki said. "We don't understand."
"I didn't want to get mad in front of people so I went off till I could be in here without being angry."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"You'd follow me."
"You were followed anyway."
"So maybe I'm stupid."
Karen sighed again, deciding to change the subject. "Do you think you can move your hands now? Without feeling any pain?"
Silently, the girl held up her bandaged wrists, rotating them and wiggling the fingers without as much of a grimace. 
"No tendons have been sliced. It doesn't hurt," she merely said. 
"Well," Karen said, trying to take control of the situation, "you do understand that we'll need to watch you after this?"
"Why?"
"Because you might do it again."
Another blank stare. "I've already done it once. Why bother to do it again if it doesn't work?"
Arashi spoke. "Why did you do it?"
"What do you do when there's a problem, like an obstacle or something?"
"I don't get what that has to. . ."
"What do you do to the obstacle?"
The priestess huffed. "You get rid of it or go around it. Why?"
"Apply that to what just happened before I left. I'm sure you'll find an answer."
Arashi's eyes widened. "You're that cold. . .!? To even take your own life if you think it's your fault?"
"It's not a hard concept to grasp. I have very little here. To lose it is worse than death."
Now it was Arashi's turn to be stunned. 
Shirushi turned toward the door again. "I just remembered. . .I have to study for a test and finish writing a paper. If you'll excuse me, I'll go on home before you. . .I want to get some sleep." With that, she walked casually out of the room. 
"She's gone. . ." Kamui whispered in a broken voice. 
"I don't think she'll try anything nasty again," commented Sorata. 
"No. That girl standing there, that wasn't Shirushi. . .it was someone else, like a doll. . ."
Subaru sighed. It seemed that no one really did understand what had happened. 
"She's not gone. At least not completely. There's still the remnants of her personality, but they won't surface around us. Probably just locked up internally. She said earlier that she doesn't want to affect other people, therefore removing herself from everyone," the onmyouji said. 
"I think it was something else. . .she was terrified into that fugue," Aoki said. 
"Will she-will she ever come back to us?" Kamui asked, his voice almost like that of a child. 
"I can't answer that question. It's her decision to make-whether or not to return."

Watching from above was a boy standing on a tree. 
"Heh. So these are my new housemates. . ."
A crooked smile appeared on his face as he saw the young girl who had just disappeared walk out of the hospital. 
"Looks like I'm just about to meet one too."

Shirushi was walking to the mansion mumbling to herself. 
". . .what should I review? I know, pages 560-577 will be fine. I knew that those AP classes would be worth it."
"You're going to the Imonoyama Mansion, right?"
Shirushi stopped. Without turning, she said, "Yeah." The voice asking the question had been in a monotone, and mild. Immediately she was suspicious, because he was also speaking in English. 
"There's nothing to be afraid of, Kamimura-san. You can turn around. I'm not going to hurt you."
Shirushi turned around to see a boy who looked identical to Kamui, except taller and with a scar on his face. 
"Who are you?" she asked. She decided to size him up a bit. He didn't look harmless, that was for sure. As far as she was concerned they both were equal to each other. But he didn't look like he wanted to fight. But why would he know who she was?
Finally he spoke. 
"I am Hikaru Midorikawa."

Hikaru decided to also size up the girl standing before him. She looked ordinary enough; a normal girl taking a walk, and she didn't seem too hostile either. However, her fugue had seemed to wear off and now she was looking at him suspisciously. He had to admit, however, that she also looked pretty cute. 
 From the research there was, the Kamimura clan was descended from Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami, the Shinto goddess of the sun. They weren't related to royalty, in fact they had only recently become known in the past two generations. 
"Well, your name is fitting for you, my dear girl. . ."
"What? Surname or the first one?"
"Both. You should be more aware of the stir your clan's caused in the past generations."
"I'm a nisei. Nisei people don't really know about the history. Mom said it wasn't that important anyway."
"Didn't Hinoto tell you anything?"
"She told me about the matriarchal lineage, and the power. That's it-as for my name, I already know."
"Kamimura," Hikaru said, "is the characters 'kami' for god, and 'mura' for village, am I correct? That's the clan whose powers grow with each generation. You're a descendant of Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami. . .you're from a holy descent line, so to speak. The reason that it's causing a stir," he explained, "is because their powers didn't show up as much-however if you look at their initial location, the clan was in a village all by itself. And they always stayed together- near a shrine of some sort. Hence the name Kamimura. But their power hasn't shown up until lately. That's because it hasn't been needed."
"Needed?"
"There hasn't been any power needed before, not until the End of The World. The Sumeragi clan, the Magami clan, and all the other shrines were enough to keep the natural and magical forces out. But for this, you have been summoned."
"Summoned?"
"It seems that Kami-sama had decided to use some intervention. Actually, you were wished here. Now with the Seraphim, it's become even more dangerous."
"Why the hell would that be?"
A crooked smile crossed Hikaru's face. "Your clan's power grew gradually at first, and then it shot up all of a sudden. Since you're the last one left, you have a great deal of power, more than you probably know. Now with your other counterpart, both of you have enough power alone to virtually wipe out the planet and much more." He looked around. "It's getting dark, Kamimura-san. Why don't we go to the mansion?"
Wordlessly, Shirushi led him there, thinking carefully about what Hikaru had said about her and her clan. 
 she thought. 

The world exploded like a fragile crystal ball.
Hinoto only could watch, watch as Shirushi grinned evilly at the whole scenario while throwing blasts of high power here and there. 
"Oh. . .no. . ."
This time, Hinoto could hear sharp piercing laughter and the howling wind that harmonized grotesquely with it.
The prophet watched in horror as the Seraph stabbed innocent passerbys with her sword and led dragons to reduce the earth to mere particles. 
Hinoto bowed her head sadly as the wind blew the particles in a dust cloud away into the night.

For some reason, Nokoru seemed to accept Hikaru as if he was expected. Shirushi was already getting a bit suspicious of the whole thing already. For one thing, Hikaru was sixteen just like her but he acted like he was older, about twenty or so. He didn't seem too friendly either, given the emotionless expression and such. . .not to mention the way he looked at her. . .she felt like putting her hand up in front of his face. His eyes weren't that unusual. . .a dark midnight blue, but still didn't need to be covered up with sunglasses like her, but the way they stared at her, like he was trying to analyze her or something. She had already come to two conclusions. . .being rather mysterious and all, he could be a secret agent being really really good at his job or maybe he was a robot.
 her conscience kept telling her. 
The way he acted, however, there wasn't much of a reasonable conclusion, except that he might have been autistic. But according to what she had read in her psychology class that wasn't too likely. Hikaru just seemed too damn conscious. 
And that bothered her a whole lot. She didn't like being around people who were too mysterious and enigmatic. . .not to mention afterwards Hikaru seemed to ignore her presence. In fact he seemed to ignore everyone's presence once they had come back from the hospital. Of course she was up in her room blowing off some steam with Metallica blasting out of the boombox. She had just wanted to forget the whole traumatizing thing. It hadn't worked, just listening to the music and then taking a freezing cold shower didn't even take care of it. She just decided to work on her paper, the test being in a blowoff class that was required and therefore easy to pass. 
"Shirushi?"
"Hai." 
Subaru quietly opened the door and walked into the room. "You should be going to sleep now. . .it's getting late."
"I'm old enough to know how much sleep I need. . .besides, this is a literature thesis due in a few days. There's only a lecture tomorrow in class. Nothing too important."
Subaru cracked a half-smile. "You're beginning to sound like me now."
"Fine. I'm only here up because I'm afraid to go to sleep. That's why. I don't know. Maybe it's not normal to be traumatized by this. I took a cold shower and everything."
"Kamui-san's going to be all right. You don't need to worry about that."
"I'd rather not talk about it right now." The words were rather cold. 
"So. . .what do you think of Hikaru-san?"
Shirushi took another look at her notes and typed in a few more sentences. "Well, I guess he's all right. A bit peculiar-he acts more mature for his age, but as long as he isn't one of those people who try to kill us I don't think there's anything wrong." She looked back at the screen. "Shit. I messed up on a few things. . .now what am I gonna do?"
"Just go to sleep, Shirushi. We don't need another me running around."
"If I go to sleep, then you're gonna have to tolerate me screaming at five minute intervals. Well, I guess I'll go sleep on the hammock in the yard."
"After what happened today, you're not the only one." The onmyouji walked over to Shirushi's desk, and before she could protest, saved the document and turned off the computer. 
"But I went to sleep already!!" the girl whined plainitively.
"Fine, fine. Well then you get to take a walk with me around the mansion. We just won't tell anybody."
"You win." Shirushi put on her slippers-actually her mother's old school shoes, and walked out the door. 

A few weeks had passed. Nothing was really too normal. Everyone had been rather quiet recently. 
Yuzuriha was bewildered, trying to figure out why Shirushi was acting rather cold. However, she had taken notice of Hikaru, and for some reason she felt rather lightheaded when she was near him. 

Shirushi had also been tutoring her in her math. Yuzuriha had noticed how she had changed before she had started and now. Before she would have been telling her jokes about her math teacher, and also still showing her TV shows while jokingly telling her that they were being bad. 
"Yuzu-chan, I don't think your teacher would like hearing that we studied while watching 'Jerry Springer'," she had said. 
Now it was different. All Shirushi did was watch her do her work, and then correct her when things were wrong. 
"Yuzuriha. . .you forgot again that you were supposed to divide the _product_ by 2, not the factors themselves. If you don't remember that, how will you pass the test you have in a few days?"
"I'm sorry, Shirushi-oneechan. . ."
"Well, that's all right. Now let's take a look at these constructions that the teacher assigned. You said you didn't get this one?"
"Yeah."
"Let's see. It's the problem with the dog attached to a leash on  a pole with a house and fence, right?"
"How come it's not a circle around the two?" 
Shirushi looked at the initial construction Yuzuriha had made, then picked up her compass. 
"You have to remember, Yuzuriha, that a leash is flexible. It can go around corners and therefore, the radius is shortened, like this." She drew a few lines and then drew a big circle.
"But I said it was a circle."
"That's the first step-this is where the lines come in. See here? That's where the leash will get stuck, and if you go around _here_, then it will have a new radius, like this. It's the same with this, and this." Shirushi quietly drew a few more circles. 
"It looks like a weird shape. . ." Yuzuriha trailed off. 
"That's the point of the whole thing. Here," she said, making another drawing, "you try it."
"So, how's the tutoring session going?" 
Shirushi looked up to see Hikaru behind them. 
"Fine," she said merely. Then she looked at her watch. "Um. . .I have to go to a manga-bu meeting. Hikaru-san, would it be all right if you tutor Yuzuriha for me?" 
"That's no problem," the boy responded, all the time staring at her with his piercing eyes.  His tonelessness was beginning to get onto Shirushi's nerves, because he was doing it and she was doing it too, and meanwhile the stare seemed a bit accusing whether or not it was meant to. 
"Would you stop staring at me!?"
Hikaru merely looked away. 
Shirushi was beginning to have enough of the whole thing. The tonelessness was beginning to become creepy with  the fact there wasn't any apparent cause. . .and not to mention his disdainfulness and robotic attitude was about enough to kill her. 
"You're acting like a robot, you know that?!"
Hikaru merely stared at her again. 
Shirushi let out a frustrated grunt and stalked out of the room. "Oh, screw it. . ."
Yuzuriha watched with an open mouth as the older girl stormed off. 
"There's her Asuka incarnation again," Hikaru muttered. 
"Asuka incarnation?"
"That's right, named for Sohryu Asuka Langley of Evangelion fame."
"She hasn't been acting like that recently. . ."
"Well, all you've seen is her acting like Rei II. Of course not.  Once she's gone she'll probably go out and act like a normal girl-Rei I."
"Hikaru-kun, I think that's kind of mean."
"Possibly, but it explains the way she acts. After all, seeing something like that for a person like her wouldn't exactly be too delightful. But enough with that." Hikaru reached out for the compass, as did Yuzuriha, and suddenly for a brief moment, their hands touched. 
"Ah. . .um, gomen. . ." Yuzuriha stuttered, her face growing hot, but Hikaru gave a slight smile. 

"Shall we start then?"
"Ah. . .yes. . ." the younger girl smiled as the two began their lesson. 

"Mika-chaaaaaaaan!!!!!!!" Sana knocked on the door of the Imonoyama Mansion. 
"Oh, I wonder if she's even home. . ."
Kamui answered the door. "Yes?"
"Oh, Shirou-kun! Hello! Is Mika-chan-I mean, Shirushi around? I have something to return to her. . ."
"Um. . .no, she just left a few minutes ago to a meeting somewhere. . ."
"Huh, that's strange. She's been busy lately. . .ah well, I guess she settled in a bit more to Tokyo, ne? With joining a sports team, the manga-bu, the university fair, and an art show, I'd think she'd be tired. . .but for some reason she still managed to do her job at the store well too. . .oh! I have to go out on a date in a few minutes. . .here, you wouldn't mind returning this sketchbook to her, right? She left it at the store yesterday. It's really important to her because it has the drawings that are part of her portfolio. . ." The girl handed him a sketchbook. "Well, I have to go soon, see you in class!" 
"Right. . ." Kamui looked down at the book. It had a hard cover and the initials "S.K." in Shirushi's neat handwriting on the upper right hand corner. 
"I might as well put it in her room." So saying, he went up the stairs and found that the door was closed with a poster on it. It read: "Do not enter. Trespassers will be eviscerated" across a girl holding a bloody knife and a cruel smile. 
 With that thought, he pushed the door open. 
The room looked different now. Of course, he hadn't really been in her room since her first day of school, but since then it turned out that she had really settled in. Now the bed was neatly made, a stereo and a television set sat nearby with a Playstation and a collection of CD's near the respective systems. There were a few posters decorating the aqua-colored walls, a few of her drawings, the others from well-known manga artists. 
The bookshelves were also neatly organized, ranging from her manga magazines to the tankobons(Kamui noticed that she had quite a few Clamp titles, along with some shonen manga) and there were books in English, along with the photo albums and sketchbooks. 
But the desk caught his attention. 
It had the computer with a desk light, but there was also three packages that said "Manga submission" with their respective magazine on it. 
"Lala. . .Amie. . .Asuka. . ." and then he noticed the photo on her desk. 
It was in a floating frame, and it was of the two of them the day before she had left. He picked it up carefully and stared at it for a while. 
"She still has this." He chuckled slightly noticing that she was making a funny face at the camera. 

"Come on, you two, this is serious business. We want a nice picture." Click. 
"Shirushi!! Don't stick out your tongue at the camera!"
"But Mo-om. . . it's soo fun to do! Okay okay, how about this?" Click.
"Trying to be all tough now, huh? Like Wonder Woman?"
"I AM tough, niichan!! I'm so super tough that I can. . . .uh. . ."
"Blow up cities with your glasses?"
"Yeah!!!"
"Okay you two, this time it's for real. Smile!" Click. 

"What's this?" A small box caught his eye. 
He picked it up and opened it. Inside seemed to be a lot of things. Ticket stubs to concerts. A ribbon from a contest. A piece of sea glass worn smooth. An obituary. 
An obituary? Further searching led him to a card written in English and Japanese. 
"Kamimura Shinya. . ." Only the birthdate was visible. The rest had been scratched out violently with a black pen. 
It was for Shinya's funeral. A cold wave washed over Kamui, realizing that Shinya was dead for real. 
A pair of glasses. Shirushi's old glasses. . .but these were cracked and they were stained red. 
 
"What are you doing here?" That sentence suddenly stopped his train of thought. He looked up to see Hikaru standing there. 
"You know," he continued, "I don't think Shirushi will appreciate you looking through her stuff."
"So then why are you here!?" Kamui lashed out at the other boy. 
"I'm just here to return some books she let me borrow. After all, she has a lot of Shakespearean literature and other good books, like Bradbury and Gibson. But it seems that she likes to deal with the dark stuff best."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, come on! Look at these things-'Halfborn Woman' and 'The Good Children'. They aren't exactly happy books. . .the former's about a failed suicide attempt and the latter's about kids living with a dead mom in the backyard. And there's also 'Catch-22' and a few others by cynical writers. I should ask to borrow a few of these soon."
"Well, what did you borrow?"
"I borrowed some Shakespeare-Hamlet, Macbeth, and Antigone by Socrates. She said that she wasn't reading them much, just something for her Humanities classes. So what are _you_ up here for?"
"Takai-san wanted me to return a sketchbook to her. . ."
"Well, from what I've gathered, it'd be better to look in those sketchbooks if you want to know about her," Hikaru said, putting the books back on the shelf. "And it's not going to be pretty. Her family tends to be a bit secretive about what goes on in the household, and I know that the daughter of Kamimura Miya probably has some nasty stuff that has happened in there that she's not willing to tell us."
"How do you know her mother!? Her family only stayed in Japan for a year or so!!"
"They're descended from Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami. To be more specific, the women happen to be able to harness elements with some other magic to boot. I haven't seen Shirushi in battle yet, so I can't tell whether she's also an onmyouji like Subaru or something, but I think that's highly unlikely. She's been concealed in society good enough not to be spotted for this long by even me." So saying, Hikaru sauntered out of the room, leaving Kamui speechless. 

"What a sordid child," Hikaru muttered as he walked back to his room. 
He had remembered the head of the Ikawa Project always talking about wanting to find Miya. She had revealed great powers at an early age, and seemed to be a potential asset to them. However, Miya had been extremely clever, always seeming to know when they would come, always one step ahead. 
But this didn't mean that Hikaru hadn't gotten a glimpse of her. It was just that the priority had changed to find Shirushi. On his earlier missions, he had seen Miya staying at home, degenerated to watching soaps and other things, always trying to kill herself because her marriage was falling apart due to her son's death. 

Shirushi had inherited her mother's instinct and always seemed to be out of the house when Hikaru had come around. Her mother only talked with her to harness her powers and make use of them. However, this didn't mean that Hikaru had tried to find out more about her, to make catching her easier. 
That was how he found out about how informative the sketchbooks were. What Shirushi hid, the pictures revealed. 
"Why was I sent here anyway?" he asked himself. 

The same question was presented at the Diet Building's basement by Shirushi. 
Hinoto looked down, not wanting to tell, or answer. 
Finally, she looked up again, blind crimson eyes meeting with walled-up ones. 
"Originally you were not part of the plan, Shirushi-dono," she said quietly. "The Seraphim were only here to possibly carry out the will of the gods."
"Isn't that what I'm doing now?"
Hinoto ignored the clients outside staring at the young girl. 
"You weren't supposed to be involved-as Seraphim are the class of angels closest to gods, there seemed to be no need to call on you. But now, the Chosen One is in pain because of who he must fight."
"So what does this have to do with me?"
"His power was so great. . .and the desire to save his friend also great. . .that it brought you and your counterpart here. Now they don't have to fight, but you do. They are only there for making the intended future happen."
"Kamui. . .wished me here? But then what about the Shinken?"
The DreamGazer, not ceasing to stare, flatly responded "It has become obsolete-whether or not it will be used is undecided."
"So I'm just the answer to a few prayers? That's it? I'm here because someone just didn't want to fight? That cost me my family!" 
"Shirushi-dono. . .you are more special than you think. And also, I must warn you: you must try to keep your emotions clear and calm."
"The hell. . .!!"
Hinoto took on a sterner tone. "If you do not, then you will turn into a hazard for everyone. I'm sure that you have been told about the amount of power you have. An angry Seraph is dangerous, and a crazed one will surely doom us all."
"You _saw_ what Motomi did to him! I know you saw-why else would Daisuke come running!?"
"Such is the warning. Motomi has become somewhat dangerous as we all know. . .and you are beginning to also with your fluctuations with the Seals. In other words. . .if this continues or gets worse you may not be able to fight." 
"But what about Midorikawa!? What is he there for?"
"We don't know yet. . .it is possible that he may be there to prevent this from happening. . ."
"Like a safety device. If one of us goes off, he'll just come in like we're mere things! Like a spare tire!"
"Please, Shirushi-dono," Hinoto murmured telepathically, "be careful. . ."

Meanwhile, Hikaru sat in his room, quietly facing the window. A crooked smile appeared as he saw Shirushi angrily stalking home. 
"Really, it's too bad. . ." he murmured to himself. "You were an interesting girl. But still, you are a Seraph, and one that is getting out of hand. It's so sad that I'll kill you. . .and become your replacement instead. . ."
The smile still remained as Hikaru continued his soliloquy. 
"I've never felt any emotion when killing anybody. There just might be a little amusement in killing this girl though. . .but not so fast, not so fast. All in good time. . ."
He turned his head to hear Shirushi filling yet another mug of coffee. 
"That girl drinks too much coffee. No wonder she's always like that. If I had as much caffeine as she does I'd be a low down bitch too."
"That's cold, Hikaru-kun."
He looked up to see Arashi in the doorway.
"Was I talking to you?"
"Stop antagonizing her already!"
"Why? She's been making all these nasty comments and stuff."
"Only to you!!"
"Why, my dear Ise miko, it sounds as if you want the dear child back the way she originally was."
"Would you stop referring to her as a child too? With _you_ around, no wonder she's acting up. . ."
"Who's acting up!?" The pair turned to see Shirushi in the hallway.
"Um. . .ah. . ." For the first time, Arashi was actually stuttering. "I have to go somewhere. . ." and she quickly left the room. 
Hikaru gave yet another half-smile to the other girl. "How much of that do you drink daily?"
"None of your business." Sip. 
"Why don't you just hook up to an IV of it? You'd die sooner and make everyone else happy."
"Shut up. What the hell do you know about my drinking habits? And what were you and Arashi-san talkin' about anyways?"
"That's none of your business."
With another angry huff, Shirushi glared at him. "You, Hikaru-kun, do not make sense at all. . ."
"I know." The boy blinked calmly while Shirushi immediately let loose with a barrage of obscenities 
and curses, half Japanese, half English. 
"My, where did you learn that? I know they don't teach that at Japanese schools in the U.S."
The college student responded with sticking up her middle finger at him. 
"Oh, you're flickin' me off, I'm so scared. . ." 

Kamui was just about to start looking at the sketchbooks until he heard a light yet quick stomping sound coming toward Shirushi's room. In a hurry, he snatched a few of them at once, not worrying at all whether she'd notice them being gone. 
". . .Thinks he's all that, huh?" Shirushi mumbled angrily in English. She continued walking to her room, but didn't seem to notice Kamui walking at an unusually fast pace the opposite way. 
Until she bumped into him. 
"Oh! Um. . ." he said nervously. "You go first."
"Why are you walking so fast?"
"I have some work to do," was the response. Shirushi watched as he continued his fast walking toward his room. 

Kamui quietly shut the door behind him. "I hope she doesn't get mad if they're gone. . ."
Suddenly he noticed the pair of glasses that were still with him. 
 
Noting the thickness of the lenses, he tried to look through them. 
But he didn't get the expected distortion of a person with eyesight as horrible as Shirushi's apparently was for such thick lenses. 
He could see perfectly. The view was still clear. 
The lenses weren't real; they were made out of window glass. 
But if Shirushi had perfect eyesight, why was she wearing glasses? 
He remembered when the students had to have eye exams in school. Shirushi ended up staying late with the nurse, who kept on saying "That's not possible!" over and over again, and didn't believe Shirushi's reponses. It got to the point that Miya-obasan was called. She too, ended up explaining in extremely huffy tones about Shirushi, and they argued with the nurse until they got thrown out of the office. 
"In-chan," he had asked, "what was the nurse so upset about?"
"She's worried that she might go blind," Miya-obasan had tersely replied. "Shirushi reads too much for a girl her age."
"That's not what the nurse said. She said that. . ."
"Come on, Shirushi," Miya-obasan had pulled Shirushi a bit roughly by the arm. "You'll be late for soccer practice."
"Okasan, I don't play soccer. That's Shinya."
"Oh, you know what I mean!"
At this time, Kamui hadn't noticed anything wrong. However, when he noticed Shirushi was reading a book again at lunch the next day, he began to get worried. 
"I don't think your mom wanted you to read books again, In-chan."
"Well, how else am I going to keep my English straight?"
"But she said you'd go blind!"
"That nurse lies all the time," she had said nervously. "Hey, do you want to come over after school?"
Kamui stared at the old pair of glasses and wondered about how many secrets Shirushi had with her. 

"There we go. . ."
Satsuki smiled gleefully. "Yes!! Beast, you're doing a wonderful job!" 
All of Shirushi's data was carefully being downloaded-her school records, her resume, and Satsuki even had a copy of her webpage. 
"Now all I have to do is try to make sense of all of it. . .yeesh, only her webpage is in Japanese and English. . ."
"Hey, what are you doing?" Yuuto called from below. 
Satsuki quickly saved all of the documents and changed to another program. 
"Nothing much, Yuuto!! I'm trying to see if there's more data on Motomi to download."
"Wait a minute." Yuuto looked confused. "I thought that was for Nataku only."
"Well, she does have her suspicions about me," Motomi said, finally walking in the area. "Don't worry Satsuki, you won't find anything strange in my school records. I'm a very good boy unlike Shirushi. . .she's gotten into a lot of fights."
Satsuki only grumbled and started to plan on meeting Shirushi soon.

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/fuji/2352/clampfics