a/n: Wahhhhh!! I'm finally done with the next chapter... Sorry, been in kinda a rut lately. I promise, more updates should come soon, along with some new stories, which you must check out as soon as I post them, okay?

“Why didn’t you just go ahead and kill her, Kaname?” Mizu asked the Muketsu as he sat at the head of their dining room table his head down and his hands folded on the table before him.

“Because,” Kaname began as he raised his head. “It’s fun to watch her suffer.” He turned to Kaya, who sat to his right. “Isn’t it fun watching your sister suffer, my pet?” Kaname placed a hand on her knee and squeezed.

Kaya frowned and shook her head, a shower of auburn curls. “I told you, she’s not my sister. I have no family.”

“Ahh, but you have me,” Kaname leaned towards her and whispered, his lips trailing along her jaw as he spoke. She smiled dreamily and murmured something incoherent.

Mizu snorted in contempt and stormed out of the dining hall, her gauzy dress rippling like angry waves behind her. It was bad enough to know that he hated her, but to know that he hated her because of Kaya was another thing altogether.

Irrylath laid Tenshi’s body down on the dirt a few yards away from the mouth of the well. He reached behind him and pulled a snow-white feather from one of his wings before folding them carefully, wincing as they retracted back into his skin, the wound reopening and closing in a matter of agonizing seconds.

Crouching down beside the broken shinigami, he took her hand in his and turned it palm up. In it, he laid the feather.

“Don’t come back,” he prayed aloud before turning and sprinting back to the well where he was immediately swallowed by darkness.

2.b. If the Familiar fails their task and does not notify the Soul Vessel of their expiration, the Vessel receives an extra 2.8 years to live, and the Familiar is punished in a manner that the Muketsu see fit.

Five years later…

Hero awoke to the all-too familiar sound of Inoru screaming. It was a rare night that Inoru didn’t wake up screaming bloody-murder and a wonder that the neighbors didn’t complain about the noise.

She flung the sheets off of her legs and jumped up. Okami, who had taken to sleeping in the crook of Hero’s breastbone, awoke as she slipped from her perch and landed with a tiny growl of protest in Hero’s blanket.

Hero paid the tiny fox no attention and ran out into the hallway, ricocheting off the walls with Okami trailing despondently at her heels. “Don’t worry, I’m coming!” she called out into the darkness before her.

She burst into Inoru’s room and flipped on the light before jumping onto his bed next to where he sat, panting and drenched in sweat in the tangled sheets. Hero pulled him to her and stroked his hair.

“The eyes…” he whimpered. Okami jumped onto the bed and nuzzled his leg comfortingly. Inoru looked up toward his sister, his own eyes wide in fear.

“Shhh…” She pushed his head back down into her chest and whispered as she rocked him gently back and forth, “I’m here. You’re safe.” These were the only times that Hero was glad her brother was blind. So that he didn’t have to see the look on her face when he mentioned the eyes: The shinigami’s eyes

They stayed like that, Hero cradling her little brother in her arms until he had calmed down a bit, just as they usually did when he had a bad dream.

Hero pulled away and held him at arm’s length as she wiped the tears from his cheeks with her thumbs. “Better?”

Inoru hiccupped and nodded. Okami chirruped and scampered up Inoru’s chest and onto his shoulder, burying her nose in his brown hair and sniffing in his ear.

“Good.” Hero smiled. She unfolded her legs and stood, hands on her narrow hips. “Do you think you can go back to sleep, or do you want to sleep in my bed tonight?”

Inoru rolled his eyes. “I’m thirteen. I’m not a baby.”

Hero shrugged. “Suit yourself, then.” She bent down and scooped Okami from his shoulder giving Inoru a kiss on the cheek as she straightened up. “G’night!” she called as she flipped the lights off and began to walk down the hallway and back to her room, stroking the fox with her pinky.

“W-wait!” Inoru called.

Hero walked backwards into his room and flicked the lights on again. “Yeees?”

“Maybe…” Inoru grinned sheepishly, his gray eyes glinting in the light. “Maybe just for tonight.”

Hero smiled. “If you insist!” she said sarcastically. She lifted the hand that was cupped around Okami and brought it to her face. The familiar crouched and sprung up onto her shoulder, Okami’s tiny claws sticking in Hero’s thin nightshirt.

Inoru unwrapped himself from the sheets and stood. “One thing.” He held up a forefinger. Hero raised an eyebrow curiously. “Just don’t tell my friends.”

She laughed. “Why would I be talking to your lame friends anyway?”

“My friends aren’t lame!” Inoru whined. He held out his hand and Hero took it, leading him to her.

“I’ve met your friends, you’re not fooling anyone.” She took him by the shoulders and gave him a push out the door. He continued arguing as he went down the hall to Hero’s room, his hand sliding across the wall.

Hero watched him for a second before turning back to the empty room. She sighed and looked down at the fox curled around her neck. “C’mon,” she said to her softly before turning and leaving the room once more.

Tenshi sat on the roof of a house a few blocks down from Hero, her long legs curled up to her chest and her chin resting on her knees. She held her mirror cupped in both hands. The images in the glass flicked by rapidly, a series of faces.

First there was Hero as she had been when Tenshi had met her, bleeding on the pavement. Inoru’s face as he gazed into her soulless eyes. Another face, covered by a white bandana, but Tenshi could tell he was smiling underneath the fabric. That same face, somber and pale, kneeling beside her, a single white feather clutched in her hand. A young girl’s face: Her sister Hina’s face before Kaname had gotten a hold of her. Quickly that turned into a face that still looked twelve by all appearances but had the wise and critical eyes of an adult. More faces that she couldn’t put names to.

Tenshi sighed and reached around behind her to scratch at the rough patch on her back where her wings had once been.

“Any minute now.”

And sure enough, a moment later, a white light lit up the window of Hero Shiawase’s room. Anyone looking might have thought it was a camera flash, but no one had been looking except for Tenshi, and she was one of the few who knew that it positively was anything but a camera flash.

2.c. The Vessel is only allowed three, consecutive or non-consecutive, expansions of their life. Noncompliance will result in the death of the Familiar.

When Hero’s alarm clock went off the next morning, she quickly slammed the ‘off’ button for fear that the noise would wake Inoru, who was still fast asleep. It was so rare that her brother ever slept, Hero didn’t want to wake him unnecessarily early.

She turned over to face him and watched him for a few moments. He was nestled in her comforter so that only his face poked out, his hands curled under his chin. His mouth was open slightly and every time he exhaled, he made whistling sound. Okami was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t unusual: Hero often left her window open a crack so that the young fox could get out to hunt in the early morning hours.

Hero smiled, and untangled herself from her sheets as she stood slowly, trying to keep her futon from creaking. Once up, she stretched her arms up into the air and arched her back with a satisfying crack. Hero checked her clock. 5:45. She had two hours to take a shower, get dressed, make breakfast, wake Inoru, eat said breakfast, and get to school. With a resolute nod, she opened the door to her bedroom and stepped into the hall, on her way to the bathroom without so much as a second glance at her bed…

No alarms woke the Muketsu, nor did soft rays of sunshine shimmer through the slotted windows of his bedchamber disturb his slumber, for Kaname didn’t sleep. He had no need for it. The four-poster bed dressed with black satin sheets was merely for Kaya’s comfort, and indeed, she preferred to sleep in his quarters rather than in her own.

Kaname stared at the auburn haired beauty as she lay, turned away from him on her side. Her twelve-year-old frame was easily hidden in the massive down comforter, which was, once again, purely ornamental.

“Today’s the day, my sweet,” Kaname said quietly into Kaya’s hair. He reached his arms around her and pulled her closer to him, her back pressing firmly against his chest.

Kaya turned slightly so that she was facing him. She smiled sleepily. “What day is that?”

Kaname chuckled and grasped her chin with his fingers, pulling her perfect mouth to his in a soft kiss. “It’s the first day of your sister’s death.” Kaya sighed in frustration. “Of course I know she’s not really your sister anymore, love. How could you let me forget?”

The girl smiled again. “I couldn’t.” She sat up on her elbows, ignoring the pressure of Kaname’s arm as it tried to keep her down on the bed. “We should celebrate, don’t you think?” She stared eagerly down at her lover and waited for his response with bated breath.

Kaname saw the elated look in her eyes and knew he couldn't say no to her. He sighed, defeated. “Very well. Fetch Rurik. He’s always up for a party.”

2.d. If it is found that the Soul Vessel received the life expansion due to a false claim by either the Familiar or the Vessel, both will be put to death.

At 6:13, Hero stepped out of the shower and grabbed her towel off the hook on the bathroom door. She wrapped herself in it and padded her way back to her room, wringing her hair out as she went.

As she reached the door to her room, she paused before entering. Something felt weird. With a frown, she slowly pushed open the door with one hand while she held her towel around her body with the other. Something was indeed amiss. Instead of one body in her bed, there were two. One was Inoru and the other was a young woman. A very naked young woman...