Chapter 7

"Shirushi. . .you. . .um, wanna play a game or something? You look kinda bored. . ." Sorata approached her nervously.
After the past events, Shirushi had been extremely susceptible to personality changes depending who she was with. As a precaution, he had tried not to set her off for fear of getting strangled, maimed or any other physical abuse she did when she was upset. According to Nokoru, she had been getting into more fights, and her appearance when she returned home every day told Sorata that he wasn't lying. 
"It's not Shirushi who starts the fight. . .she just seems to like provoking people a little bit more. Her psychology professor told me that she's usually well-behaved with high grades like the rest of the student body here, but a few papers she'd written consisted of well, ah, disturbing material. . .and then there was that debate that ended with her standing on her desk chanting slogans. . ." Nokoru sighed. The huge stacks of paperwork on his desk were not his primary worry. 
"On the other hand, the way she talks to a few people, namely Noriko and her 'clique' seem to be causing the fights. But that isn't a main concern, because Noriko was always some trouble. But Shirushi has seemed to make clear that she doesn't care about getting hurt." 
"Maybe she's just having some trouble adjusting here," Sorata had said. 
"I don't think that's the problem. It's already been a while since she came to Tokyo. . .and being Japanese-American, she already seems to have settled. I've heard of cases where people were teased because of coming from the States, but she's getting popular in the university, being the only one standing up to Noriko. No, I think it has to do with what happened to Kamui-san. . ."

"What?" Shirushi looked up at him. 
"Miss and I were wondering. . .if you wanted to play a little game of chess."
"We'll choose the players by drawing straws," Arashi explained.  "Please, Shirushi?"
"But chess isn't a three player game." 
"Well, this time you have no choice. You get to watch Miss and I play." Without any further words, Sorata had grabbed Shirushi by the arm and dragged her from the couch, despite her weak protests. 
"I have to finish reading this book. . ."
 Arashi thought. 
"Okay." The Kansai monk quickly laid out a board and started arranging the pieces. 
"You're supposed to put the bishop over there," Shirushi pointed out. 
"Why is the queen with the pawns?" Arashi asked. 
"Ano. . ." Sorata sweatdropped. "Well, you see. . .I'm kinda new at this. But I think that's how it's supposed to look," he continued, using the booklet to guide him. "But, ah! You're right, Miss. The queen is over here. And for that, you get to be black."
"White," Arashi corrected. 
"White?"
"White always goes first in chess."
"So it does," he agreed cheerfully. 
"Is this to somehow try to prove your intellectual ability?" Shirushi asked. 
Both Sorata and Arashi stared, for it was the first time in weeks or months that Shirushi had actually spoken in a long sentence, or made some sarcastic crack to anyone besides Hikaru. Now she had only spoken when needed, keeping the words extremely terse.
"What?" Shirushi said, not aware of the two's surprise.  
"All right," Sorata said, rubbing his hands together, "why don't we get started? Your move, Miss."
Arashi decisively moved a pawn.
"Conservative now, aren't we? Well, let's see the Kansai boy do THIS!!!!!" With that as a battle cry, Sorata twirled a knight into the air, landing it onto the board with a smack. 
Silently, the Ise miko moved a bishop in response. 
"A lady as always. . ." Now Sorata was staring nervously at his pieces. Which should he use next? Suddenly his eye caught the queen, and with a broad victorious smile, he landed it near the pawn Arashi had set out. 
Three turns later, Arashi moved her bishop and captured the queen. 
"Uh. . .oh. . ." Sorata now was sweating, staring at whatever he had left. He had already lost the rooks, the knights, and all the pawns. As a last resort, he took his bishop. 
Arashi harmlessly moved a pawn. 
He moved his king a little to the left. 
Her queen was near his bishop now. . .
But. . .
"Checkmate." 
Arashi looked up. "What!?"
"I said, checkmate. Wait, what does that mean?" He looked in his booklet. "I won. I won. I WON!!!"
Shirushi sat quietly as she had before while Sorata gave out a whoop and danced around the table. 
"I won, I won, I won!!! I'm good at this game!! Really!! WOOOOOO!!!!!" he chanted, until he caught Arashi sitting impassively at the table with a look on her face that said "What the hell is this guy doing?"
"Oh. It was a good game, Miss. Really. You're a wonderful player. No hard feelings, right? I'm still going to die for you, you know."
His reward was another arm twisting. 
"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Owowowowowowow!!!! All right, all right, I take it back!!!" 
"That's better," Arashi said. "Now Shirushi has to play you though."
"I do?" Shirushi asked. 
"Yes, you do. You play the winner." 
"Okay, I guess."
Arashi and Shirushi switched seats, while Sorata rearranged the game pieces. 
"Now, I know I'm lucky!! Take a lesson from the master, Shirushi-chan!!"
Shirushi moved a queen. 
Sorata moved a knight, snickering somewhat lecherously. 
Shirushi moved a pawn. 
"Now we're regretting moving our precious queen now, eh?" Sorata laughed victoriously, moving a pawn also.  
With raised eyebrows, Shirushi moved her queen, capturing Sorata's knight. 
"EH!?"
Six turns later, Shirushi had lost her pawns, while Sorata had lost his queen, bishops, rooks, and half his pawns. 
Sorata raised a knight into the air, and then made his move, capturing Shirushi's rook. 
"You're gonna lose, you're gonna lose. . ."
"Checkmate." 
"EEEEHH!?"
"Her queen's right in front of the king," Arashi said. 
"THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!!! No way!! I demand a rematch!!"
"Fine," Shirushi said. 
And so the process was repeated. And again. . .
"Checkmate."
"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Rematch!!"
"Sorata, would you mind being quiet?" Aoki came in the room, followed by Hikaru. "It's rather hard to concentrate on manuscript while you're screaming death cries."
"You don't spend all day with him," Hikaru commented. "At least you get to go home like Karen-san, and not tolerate him."
"Watch this, and you'll see the reason!!" Sorata shouted. 
"Can't you accept defeat like a gentleman?" Arashi asked. "If she beat you, she beat you."
"That's great, Shirushi!" Aoki said. "I didn't know you played chess!"
"Ano ne. . .I used to play when I was little."
"Can we get on with it so we can show Aoki-san and Hikaru-san just how talented I am!?"
"Yeah."
Immediately Sorata moved his pawns outward, and kept his queen in front of the king. Shirushi, on the other hand used her queen and her knights constantly. 
"You'll never be able to beat me, woman!!!"
By now, Nokoru and Subaru had gathered to see the match. 
"Ganbatte, Shirushi!!" the chairman said cheerfully. "You can beat him!!"
Subaru watched with raised eyebrows. 
"Wahahahahaha!!!! I've gotten both of your knights!!"
Shirushi wordlessly responded by moving a bishop. 
"Ahaha!! Feel the wrath of the black knights!!!!"
The silent response was another turn made by a rook, capturing the queen. 
"EHHH!? You can't do that!!!"
"Yes she can," Nokoru said, pointing to the booklet. "Don't worry, Sorata's always like this."
"Yes," Shirushi responded. 
"Well well. . .if you take away my queen, I guess it's goodbye bishop!!!" Sorata laughed maniacally as he took Shirushi's bishop. "Mine, mine, MINE!!!!"
"What's going on?" 
Immediately a hush went over the room as Kamui came in. Lately since that "incident", he had retired often to his room, not talking to anybody. . .as did Shirushi. 
"Um. . .ah. . ." Sorata started stuttering. "Well, you see, Shirushi and I are in a chess game, and so far I think I'm pretty much beating her. . ."
"Checkmate," Shirushi said, moving her queen. 
"AAAAAAAHH!!!! Not again!!!"
"I have to go now," Shirushi said in a normal tone of voice. "I have to go to hockey practice, because the championship playoffs is coming up soon."
"Is there hockey practice today?" Nokoru asked. 
"Coach Shimada wanted another practice to prepare. I'm supposed to arrive earlier. Goodbye." 
After she left, Sorata finally said something rational. "What's going on with her?" 
"She's not herself," Arashi said simply. 
"I hope she does well in the playoffs!" Nokoru said cheerfully. "She's one of the best players on our team." 
"Maybe she's tired," Aoki said. "Even I didn't participate in as many activities as she is now. . .and she seems intent on getting that manga of hers into ASUKA. . . that's exhausting."
Kamui simply looked in the direction she had gone. 
"In-chan. . ." he whispered. 



". . .have to get her soon. Otherwise she'll be a hazard to everyone here. And I have to kill her quickly without anyone else knowing. . ."
"Kill who?" 
Hikaru saw Yuzuriha. "Hello, Yuzuriha-chan." he said tonelessly.
"Are you going to kill someone?" The girl's eyes were filled with suspicion. 
". . . . .I. . ."
"Are you?" Yuzuriha looked up at him with big brown eyes. 
". . .No, no. . .I was rehearsing lines for a play. That's all."
"Waai!!! You're in acting!? I didn't know that! When's the play?"
"Ano. . .it's a radio program for a class. . .and Suzuyama-kun wanted me to help out with acting out one of the parts." 
"That's really cool! Can I listen to it sometime? Oh. . ." Yuzuriha blushed at her sudden blurting.  she thought. 
Hikaru seemed to be blushing too, although imperceptibly. "Yes, you can listen to it when we're done."
"Really? Ano ne. . .thanks. I have to go someplace now. . ." then suddenly she turned and ran down the hall. 
Hikaru felt a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. That girl really was cute, and it charmed him that she could talk to him like that, especially since he was that type that made people feel uncomfortable, always keeping a distance from him. For some reason, Yuzuriha gave him a warm feeling inside, whenever she smiled, whenever she spoke to anybody. . .what was it? 
Love. . .? 
Fear gripped an almost always stony heart. He couldn't possibly love anyone. . .the feeling was beyond him, one of those locked away emotions. He was supposed to be empty. The best assasin in the Ikawa Project always lacks emotions. But this emotion, so comforting yet so terrifying. 
Hikaru shook his head, freeing himself of the confusion. He wasn't here to experience love. The only thing he was here for was to do what he always did best. 
Kill Shirushi Kamimura, and take her place in the battle. 
Death's rictus played upon his lips, giving the beautiful youth an evil, sinister appearance. 
"You have no idea, Shirushi, how little time you have left."

BAM!!!
Satsuki jumped in her seat as another player in Clamp's women's hockey team smashed up against the plastic wall during a scrimmage. 
"Dammit, why can't they be more gentle with each other? It's messing up my typing." 
True to her nature, the cybergirl had a laptop version of Beast, affectionately nicknamed "Chibi-Beast". Right now she was typing in "observations" about Shirushi, who was the one causing all the smashing. 
"Didn't know such a small kid like her would have so much energy," she muttered.  "I wonder if she had too much sugar this morning? Americans eat really sweet stuff. . ."
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, KAMIMURA-SAN!!! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE SKATING!!" Coach Shimada yelled. "The playoffs will be a disaster if you keep on smashing every one of your teammates into a wall like that!!"
"Gomen. . .didn't see Miyazaki-senpai."
"It's okay. . .Megane-chan. . .doesn't hurt a bit. . .ow!!"
"You want some ice, Miyazaki-senpai?"
Satsuki heard some snickering. "What did you expect, of course she wouldn't be careful! In hockey, Americans are known for those brawls!!" It was Maya Matsumoto, one of Noriko's cronies. 
"Another reason to hate humans. . .they're so incredibly hateful of each other," she muttered, typing on Chibi-Beast. 
"All right," Coach Shimada sighed. "We'll just have to substitute Miyazaki-san. . .get some ice on those bruises tonight, okay? We don't have much time before the playoffs. All right. Scrimmage is over."
"Thank you," Satsuki said under her breath. 
"We'll practice with Hina. Everybody in a single file line, please. I want you to make one shot each, remember girls, you don't have to go directly for the center. After this, you can all go home."
It was then that Satsuki noticed she was right behind the goal cage. 
"And I think I'll change my seat. . .man, Shirushi is a tough kid to watch."
She watched as one of the players started to swing. 
"Matsumoto-san! You're high-sticking again!" 
"Gomen!" The swing was followed by the puck nearly hitting the goal. 
"Use your body more!"
"Hai!"
"You're up, Mima-san!"
The goal received the puck nicely. 
"Good, Mima-san! That's improved."
Satsuki decided to ignore the goal practices after a while, because watching people swinging a puck at the goal cage was decidedly boring. 
"Okay, Kamimura-san! Give us what you've got!"
"Go, Megane-chan!"
"Come on, you can do it!"
The response was the puck smacking the goal cage at dead center. 
"Perfect as always!!"
"Yeah!!!! Megane-chan, you'll be the best at the playoffs!!"
"We can rely on Megane-chan here! She'll carry us to victory!"
"Everybody to the showers!!" 
"Hai, Shimada-san!" 

"Ah, Kamimura-san!"
"Yes?" Shirushi turned to see who was calling her name. She saw a girl about her height, with bleached bangs and huge glasses like hers. 
"I, ah. . . saw your hockey skills at practice today. You're really good."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Satsuki Yatouji."
"Satsuki. . ." Shirushi sensed  something strange about this girl. It had been there when she had battled Seishirou, Motomi, and Fuuma. 
Could it. . .
"You're a Dragon of Earth, aren't you? Look, I already have enough problems here getting beat up by senpai and snotty classmates. Can't you wait till the Final Day?" 
"No," Satsuki said, shaking her head. "I didn't come here to fight. But you are Shirushi-one of the Seraphim. And I was wondering, since you know Motomi-kun so well, whether you would tell me some more about him."
"Why would you want to know that for?"
"I-the Dragons of Earth, are suspicious about this guy's intentions. . ."
"How do I know this isn't a trap?" 
"It's not a trap. I'm trying to help both sides here."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"Motomi doesn't seem to be working for both our sides. . ." 
"So what else is new? He's a twisted person. Of course he doesn't do that."
"Hmm."  Satsuki thought. Just as she was about to reply with another question, Shirushi pushed her down. 
"Abunai!!"
"What? Kamimura-san. . ." Satsuki got up after hearing a sickening smack followed by a thud. 
"Oh, shit," she muttered. Shirushi had been knocked down, taking the attack intended for Satsuki. Not much damage except for a gash across her nose, spurting blood. Hearing footsteps, Satsuki slipped away. 
"Kamimura-san!! Kamimura-san!! Are you okay!?" 
"Um, Shimada-san. . .she's unconscious." 
"All right. . .what's this!? There's a cut on her nose! This is going to require medical treatment! Mima-san, stay here with her in case she wakes up."
"Where are you going?"
"I have to call Imonoyama-san! I can't have my best player like this! What if she gets amnesia? Or she might have a concussion!!"
Satsuki peered from behind a wall. 
"What a neurotic coach. . ." she murmured when a hand grabbed her. 
"Now I've got you, Satsuki-chan," Motomi said. 
"What do you want?" 
"You know what I'm up to, don't you?" 
"N-no. . ."
"Yeah, you know what I want. I know you're going to tell them. So it's just too bad that I'm doing this," Motomi grinned as he raised the hockey stick up once again. "I never really liked you anyhow, getting in the middle of my plans." 
This time he didn't miss. Satsuki fell down with a echoing smack on the floor. After kicking her for signs of movement, he left quickly running out of the arena. 
A few minutes later, Satsuki's fingers moved across the floor. 

"Hello, Imonoyama residence. Oh, Shimada-san. . .Shirushi? She hasn't been back yet. . .what? Oh no. . .how did this happen? Oh, at the hospital? That's good. I'll come get her right away. Thank you."
Nokoru hung up the phone. "Shoot!"
"Did Shirushi get in trouble again?" Arashi asked, looking up from her book. 
"No, no. She got involved at an accident in hockey practice. . . someone hit her with a hockey stick."
"So what else is new?" Sorata asked sarcastically. He was still being a bit sore over his three losses in chess.  "That's a risk in sports."
"It knocked her out and she needed stitches. Other than that, there's nothing else wrong, no concussions or bumps. Shimada-san said nothing more than the usual bruises at practice besides the stitches," Nokoru said, sighing. "I can't believe how much she's changed." 
"You've known her before?" Yuzuriha asked. "That's cool! What was she like?"
"I used to know her parents. . .Kenji and Miya. They sent letters with pictures of her and Shinya. . ."
"Shinya?"
"Her older brother. But Miya was so worried over Shirushi-she was delicate when she was little, and stayed indoors most of the time, and got sick really easily. . .they severed contact a long time ago. . .after Shirushi was in second grade." 
"I don't believe that. Our Shirushi, like a precious flower?" Sorata asked. 
"Hard to see the resemblance, but yes. And now in that girl's place we have a person who gets into fights, mouths off toward who she sees fit, and gets beat up on a regular basis."
"Not to mention she's looking like a heroin addict," Sorata muttered. 
Karen whacked him upside the head. "I don't think she's a druggie."
"Okay, without the needle marks. . .but man, that girl needs to eat! She was scrawny when she came here, and now she's even scrawnier!"
"You suppose the media may have an effect on people like her?" Aoki said. "I mean, there's been this promotion that girls are supposed to be skinny. . ."
"I know!" Yuzuriha chirruped. "I'll talk to her. She'll listen to me."
"Caring for Shirushi-chan, ne? Hey Miss, the way we worry about her, I think you and me would make great parents. . ."
"Oh, be quiet for once," Arashi mumbled. "I think dying for me is enough, Sorata. I'm not exactly the mothering type."
"Aaah, playing hard to get. . . I understand. But can't you see it? Miss holding one of our darling children, and I'm pushing another in the stroller. . ." The monk's eyes got starry while everyone else in the room sweatdropped, except for Arashi who suddenly developed an interest in her book. 
"We'll get a house in a nice Tokyo suburb. . .and we'll be near a school, and two children, a girl who looks as pretty as you, and a boy who is as cool as me."
"Looks like you'd already mapped out your life together." Karen giggled. "But will Arashi agree now?"
"And what about the wedding?" Yuzuriha asked. "Where will it be held?"
"If we get married, Miss, you'll get to see me in a tux!" Sorata grasped Arashi's hands. "Isn't that great?" 
Arashi whacked Sorata on the head with her book and continued reading. 
"See how Miss loves me. . ."

"How did you come by that cut again? Your coach only said that you got hit by a hockey stick and got knocked out."
Nokoru looked at Shirushi while driving back. The girl seemed awfully quiet now, not speaking a word since he had come to the hospital to get her. 
"It wasn't during practice, Nokoru-san. It was when I was about to go home."
"So someone with a hockey stick just came up to you and whacked as hard as she could? I'll talk to Matsumoto-san, okay?"
"It wasn't her. Whoever did it wanted to hit someone else, this girl I was talking to. . .I just pushed her out of the way, but I guess I was a little careless."
"You'll be okay when the playoffs start, right?"
"It's only a few stitches. I should be fine."
Yuzuriha greeted them at the door. 
"Hi! You're back already! Oh, Shirushi. . .how long before you take out the stitches?"
"Pretty bad, it seems," Sorata commented. "You got hit pretty bad, it looks like."
"Doctor says a month or so."
"Didn't the doctor prescribe any painkillers?" Aoki asked. "I had stitches once, and they hurt for quite a while."
"He gave me an option, but I decided not to. There's risks of drug interaction and side effects." She shifted her bag. "I'm going upstairs now to do some work. Bye." The bandage on her face stood out glaringly. 
"Hey, what happened to you?" Hikaru was in the hallway, leaning against the window casually. 
"Hockey freak accident. Someone with a stick whacked me and knocked me out, along with the gash you see here."
"Too bad they didn't kill you."
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing. Go on. Although it is unusual that someone would come home looking like that."
"Like what?"
"Exactly what do you do," Hikaru said mildly, "to get hurt like this?" 
"I don't do anything. I was just an innocent bystander. Besides, that's really none of your business."
"You must have been really acting up to get hurt."
"Oh, come on. You're really judgmental, you know that?"
"What?"
"You think you know what situation I was in before you even know the complete story."
"I'm just being accurate."
"You don't understand, do you? You can't act like this and expect that people will just blow it off. It's like laughing out loud at a funeral for no reason. I mean, if that person laughing really hated the dead person, yeah, I'd kinda expect it, but for no reason is kind of like what you're doing now."
"So you're saying that my apathy is an inappropriate reaction to your injuries? What about you and your alter egos?"
"What alter egos?"
"Different personalities."
"Whoa. Look, forget the funeral metaphor I tried to set up, okay?" Shirushi said, holding up her hands. 
"Go, Hikaru-kun," she continued, "return to your strange world and I'll return to my disturbed one." 
Hikaru watched as she turned on her heel and went into her room. 
"It's getting dangerous. . .I have to complete the mission tonight."

Kamui did not believe the pictures in the current sketchbook he was seeing. It was one of Shirushi's earlier ones, the very first one with the word "Private" written in Japanese and English all over the cover in silver marker. 
As for the pictures, they were disturbing to say the least. The very first pictures looked normal, cute girls holding up victory signs, designs for school flyers. 
It was around the middle-after the pictures with the cheerleaders, that the images got quite nasty. Especially the one that Kamui was looking at. A girl lying on the ground, supposedly dead, with a knife in her body, blood staining her jeans, her padded vest and T-shirt. There was a ghastly chalk line around her, as if finalizing her apparent death. 
He looked closer at the girl's face-eyes closed, blood-stained ponytail, a contorted expression suggesting pain-a vast amount. In horror, he realized it was Shirushi. 
The next page wasn't much better. This time it showed the same girl, holding a door open, face showing horror, disgust, and anger on top of an initial smile. Emotions in the picture had come through despite the childish, sketchy lines, and he clearly remembered that same expression on Shirushi's face when he was raped. 
Another picture showed Shirushi-a normal picture, but with a huge black X scrawled across it. Along the side Kamui saw written English notes-not in her handwriting, scribbled furiously with arrows pointing to the X.  Yet another page turn showed a picture of a blood-stained hand with a tag on it, and further examination revealed that it was Shinya's body that had been drawn. More scribbled English. 
A closet with blood trailing out. 
A pair of cracked glasses near a bloody puddle. 
Cracked glasses. . .? 
Kamui picked up the pair of old glasses on his desk and compared them. They were the same. The exact same. Window-glass lenses and yet more scribbles. . .but it seemed to be names of medication. 
He sighed with relief at the next picture. No blood. No bodies. A normal bedroom. 
However, the scribbles were on top of the sketchbook page, and seemed frantic this time. He noticed that there were arrows that Shirushi had drawn herself that pointed to certain things. But the whole thing had been written in English again. 
Kamui shut the book closed and sat back. That was not exactly entertaining, and now Shirushi seemed more enigmatic than ever. What ever did happen over the past few years? 
He knew that she hadn't always been this sick-minded.  Opening the book again, he turned from the original spot to see another drastic change in the later pictures. These were happy ones. . .ones that were funny, ones that took place in fantasy worlds. . . and the scribbles had vanished. 

"Whose turn is it to make dinner today?" Arashi said. "I already made breakfast this morning." 
"I believe it's my turn," Hikaru responded, "along with Yuzuriha."
Yuzuriha merely blushed as they headed to the kitchen. "S-so. . .which apron do you want?" she stammered. Inuki looked at his mistress curiously. Never had he seen her act this way, blushing, stuttering, and being accidentally clumsy. The inugami winced as she ran into the rack where the aprons were hanging. 
"I'll take this one," Hikaru said in his normal tone, tying the straps. "What shall we cook tonight?"
Again, Yuzuriha gaped while trying to tie her apron, and ended up with Hikaru helping her tie them as her fingers had only fumbled with them instead. Yuzuriha tried to stifle a nervous giggle. 
"I was thinking, why don't we have noodle soup? We haven't had that in a long time, and everybody always seems to like it. . .along with some tofu and nori. And maybe some cake for dessert?" 
"Sure." Hikaru was already getting out the pot and filling it with water. "Would you mind chopping up the vegetables?"
"Yeah!" As Yuzuriha went over to the knife rack she took a nice, sharp knife and started to chop. Then she noticed something strange. There had been originally eight knives there. But when she had gone over there, there had been seven knives, including the one she had. Who had the other knife? She looked over at Hikaru, who seemed to be humming as he stirred the noodles. Could it be him? 
Yuzuriha immediately shook her head and resumed chopping. It couldn't be Hikaru. After all, why would he want to use a knife for? He didn't seem that way! But there was this nagging feeling in her stomach. It kept saying, "It's him. It's him. You know it." 
And he was so kind to her-tying her apron straps for her, a small half-smile here and there. He couldn't possibly have anything to do with Shirushi.
She sighed and started to chop the vegetables, hoping that feeling would soon go away. 


"Dinnertime, minna!"
Shirushi heard Yuzuriha's call and then went downstairs to the dining room. A hand came onto her shoulder and she nearly jumped in surprise, only to find it was Yuzuriha. 
"Are you feeling better, onee-chan? It's a good thing you came down for dinner tonight. We're having noodles and cake!"
"Not together, I hope." Shirushi wasn't really feeling that good, but she tried to make a small joke because Yuzuriha was in such a bright mood. 
"What? Oh," Yuzuriha giggled, suddenly understanding. "Of course not. Since Hikaru and I made dinner, you better like it!"
"Ano. . .sure." Shirushi watched as Yuzuriha danced into the kitchen again. As the others sat, she pretended to look down at her hands and not really notice anything, not to mention ignore the bandage on her nose. 
"Wow, Shirushi," Sorata's voice came from her right. "Did it hurt when he hit you?"
"No."
"Were you bleeding a lot?"
"I don't know."
"Did the doctor give you any drugs, to like, numb you or something?"
"I guess so," she said without any emotion, although she was getting slightly irritated from these dumb questions. "It's not that important."
Arashi finally cut in with another question. "Do you know when the playoffs are?" 
"Soon, if the coach is giving extra practices."
Yuzuriha came back in from the kitchen, dancing in with the noodles, Hikaru following. "Oh, you guys are talking about hockey? Wow! Hey, are you ready for the playoffs?"
"Yes," Shirushi responded.
"Is hockey here like hockey in America?" 
"Yes."
"Are you excited?"
"Yes." 
"Do you think that you'll be able to get into the tournament for long?" Hikaru asked. "Doesn't look too easy."
"I don't know." 
Hikaru just stared back at her, a feeling that made Shirushi uncomfortable, and then nodded. "Well, we should probably start eating now, or the noodles will get cold. . ."
Shirushi nodded. "You're right." Soon everyone was eating, Shirushi taking relatively little portions, and eating with tiny bites. She felt a shadow over her, turning to see Sorata yet again. 
"Is that all you eat? Damn, kid, for someone in athletics and all that stuff you should be eating more."
Yuzuriha craned her neck to get a good look at the contents in Shirushi's bowl. 
"Shirushi, it's all right. We made enough for everyone. Besides, you're getting too skinny."
"It's all right," Shirushi said. "I'm really full from lunch, besides, it's what I normally eat."
"No wonder you look like someone with anorexia," Arashi said sarcastically. 
"Anyone with that much to eat would eventually die from starvation."
"It's okay," Yuzuriha said comfortingly. "Maybe you're saving room for the cake, ne?"
With a slight shrug, Shirushi nodded.
"Sorry kiddo." Sorata again. "You should eat your growing food first. Noodles are good for a growing kid like you, and from the looks of it you could stand to have a little more on your bones."
The only response was an eyebrow raise from Shirushi, continuing to eat. 


Hikaru smiled cruelly. Dinner was almost over, and if everything went as normal routine, then Shirushi would be alone in her bedroom soon. Banking on that, he could accomplish his mission before the night was over, ultimately replacing her and getting rid of the Kamimuras' power that the Project had coveted. Along with Yuzuriha he gathered the plates and bowls, placing them in the sink for her to wash. Then he slipped outside and produced the knife he had taken in the kitchen from his sleeve. 
"Time to go to work," he said, nonchalantly smiling as he slipped the blade back and made his way to Shirushi's room. He managed to look extremely harmless as he made his way upstairs, not wanting to call any attention to what he was about to do. First up was trying to kill her. It wouldn't be an easy task, but he was up for the challenge. Besides, he hadn't had a good kill in a long time. This would be fun. Next would be trying to have it look like she had simply gone upstairs and killed herself in the simplest way possible. But that could be dealt with in good time, given the fact that no one really went into her room. Silently, with featherlight fingers, he pushed the door open just a crack to see where she was. 
"Facing the window. Excellent." Pushing the rest of it open, he crept up behind Shirushi and then, with extreme lightness, placed his hand on her shoulder to restrain her while he put the blade just so at the neck. 
 he thought as he smiled Death's rictus and sliced. 

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