Warning: To those who actually read my comic, this will be an entire spoiler for you this chapter will be over the entire second volume that I plan to release. So those who read the comic and don't want any spoilers, please do not read this, otherwise, please enjoy. There will also be a bit of the story that may be missing but that is simply because it is something that needs to be shown more then read until the point it is actually important to the story-line. Also the grammar problems of last Volume will be fixed when ALL of BOREDOM is completed. Also Sarah's last name apparently won't have it's symbol accepted so the e in Geselle won't appear in this chapter, so don't be confused.
Translation List
San - This is the most common and neutral of honorifics. The polite way to address someone youre not on close terms with is to use -san. Its kind of like Mr. or Ms., except you can use -san with first names as easily as family names.
Chan - Used for friendly familiarity, mostly applied towards young women and girls.
Kun - Like -chan, its an informal suffix for friends and classmates, only -kun is usually associated with boys. Someone addressing a subordinate can also use it in a professional environment.
Sama - Indicates a great deal of respect and admiration.
Sensei - Teachers, doctors, writers, or any master of a trade are referred to as sensei. When addressing a manga creator, the polite thing to do is attach sensei to the manga-kas name (as in McPherson-sensei).
Anything else that will need to be explained will be noted and explained at the end.
Now please enjoy BOREDOM Volume 2.

BOREDOM

Volume 2.

Chapter VI.
It's Just an Illusion: Part I.

"Half of this game is ninety percent mental."
-Yogi Berra

She stood with the door open behind her streaming a soft whisper of mist, she had two towels and one of them was threatening to slip further and further down to reveal the most intimidate parts of her. The brunette stared rather dully as a man wrapped in a robe glared at her fiercely and across the man was a blonde on top of a confused adult whose eyes were covered by the blonde.

Okay, that is not the way to start out this chapter. Let's rewind, to about a day earlier so it could explain all of that entire mess.

"Arumph!" A certain red-skinned d'jinn growled, his eyes twitching at a dangerous pace. The moon crescent mark below his left eye pulsed in a strangely eye-drawing motion.

"What's wrong with D.J.-san?" One Sarah Gesell asked, a blonde sixteen-year-old foreign exchange student. At the moment her arms were in the air as one Izuru Tanaka pulled the dress down to tightly fit over her. Izuru Tanaka was a simple woman who was a complete different body-set than to the blonde she was dressing at the moment. Long brunette hair, blue piercing dull eyes, and a mole below her left eye. The brown-haired woman just focused on her task, poking and prodding certain wrinkles below Sarah's waist.

"...Must be that time of year again." She answered the blonde's question though. Sarah found an eyebrow raising in question and couldn't help but question,

"Time of the year?" Izuru stopped poking and tugging to go to a sewing kit and pulled out scissors that were obviously made to cut fabric. Taking a few practice snips she replied,

"Every year D.J. has an itch and he isn't allowed to satisfy that itch because of his contract with God."

"Because of his contract?" The teen questioned as Izuru carefully started to snip away part of the dress. The soft sound of fabric being cut filtered in the air,

"It's an itch for magic, he isn't allowed to grant wishes."

"Is it REALLY that time of year again?" Sarah found herself jumping and almost cursing as Izuru forced her legs to still so she wasn't cut as Ganego's voice filtered in the air like a ghost. Ganego Shizuma was like your normal Japanese teen, though Sarah begrudgingly admitted that he was taller than her (and it made her cry inside to admit that), but he had dark black hair, bright red eyes, and a tattoo above his left eye. A six and half of a six for some unfathomable reason.

Ganego covered his eyes as though he was about to cry. "I hate this time!" Ganego sobbed, a cloud of depression forming across his head, "D.J. has to go away for at least a week and Izuru's alone for at least seven hours!"

"What's wrong with that? Izuru-nee(1) can take care of herself." Ganego uncovered his eyes for a moment and his face seemed to pale entirely and a shudder ran all across his spine.

"SO MANY LECTURES! NO! I'M SORRY D.J.-SAN, ANYTHING ABOUT THAT! PLEASE NOOOOO!" The dark-haired thirteen-year-old threw himself to the ground from the memory and Sarah found herself frowning in exasperation.

"...Sorry to bring up the bad memories." She said insincerely. D.J. finally turned around from his constant flouting in a strange pace that you would normally only see from a waiting father and growled loudly,

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" D.J.'s magic suddenly started to twirl and Sarah jumped behind Izuru (glad the brunette finished her cutting) as wind blew in a somewhat icy cold pattern, "I'm leaving now." Ganego paled even more, "I'll be back, take care of Izuru or I'll torture you worse than last year!" Ganego started to visibly crying but the d'jinn didn't acknowledge the boy and turned to wave to Izuru. "'Kay! Bye!" And with that, his swirling teleportation magic and his entire body disappeared. Ganego had tried to stop the magic but failed extremely. The boy fell back to his knees, crying even louder then he had with his previous memories. Sarah found herself ignoring the torturous cries though to face the brunette woman who she considered as an older sister,

"I thought D.J.-san didn't teleport in front of Shizuma-kun."

"D.J. must be desperate with his itch this year." Was the simple answer back.

"Aren't you offended though Izuru-nee?" Sarah thought back to when Ganego had insinuated that Izuru couldn't take care of herself for seven hours. It was an insult! Izuru was a woman that was out of high school and she was obviously very intelligent with her blunt tone and wise in her years of being 'bored'. However Izuru simply shrugged,

"Not really, it's the truth." Sarah's stare must have been a little upsetting because Izuru pointed at herself and commented, "I can't really take care of myself. Can't really be alone for long either, because boredom seem to flock to us when D.J. is gone." Oh...weird...

"We...only...have two pills left..." Ganego's voice seemed to interrupt her thought process for a moment. She ignored it though,

"Really? You don't seem like you'd be the type Izuru-nee."

"Hehehehe," A creepy giggle that she had never recognized as Ganego broke their conversation, "Maybe I should use these pills to make D.J.-san come back sooner."

"You know D.J. will kill you if you do that Go-chan." She interrupted his thoughts, Izuru then turned back to the blonde, "I am though."

"But why?" As Ganego's sobs seemed to pierce the air from Izuru's inconsiderate truth.

"...I haven't grown up yet." Izuru's eyes seemed to avoid her own blue eyes for a moment, placing her hand behind her head in consideration. Ganego's cries stopped as he could sense Sarah's confusion filter in the air and he started to cap the pills back,

"Oh right, you don't know yet." Sarah finally gave the teen her attention that he seemed to have subtly begging for, "When someone loses their personality, their soul keeps to the age of whenever it was when they lost their personality." At the explanation, Sarah found herself blinking.

'How old was Izuru-nee when she lost her personality?' At attempting to think about the sad thought, she shook it away and laughed slightly, "Eisel-san must be recently became 'bored' then." She commented, Ganego raising an eyebrow, "He's really smart and he even helps his father!"

"Not necessarily." The boy stopped her enthusiasm, "A genius in mathematics cannot make up for a lack of complete common sense."

"You're just jealous." The blonde found herself bluntly saying, after all there was something about Ganego that allowed her to be honest.

"Gesell-san! You're so mean to me!" The teen complained, of which she quickly just replied back,

"Not my fault you suck at math." She teased lightly with a cheerful tone to it. He just sighed and then looked over to Izuru who seemed to be slightly in a state of a daydream and moaned,

"What am I going to do? There's no way I can leave her alone like last year." The red-eyed boy shuddered, "I don't want to have to go through a torment worse than that."

"Why doesn't she just spend the night over at Eisel-san's house with me?" The blonde suggested and stared as Ganego looked at her as though she was an angel, "I mean even when we're at school she at least will be around Eisel-san." Cue halleluiah music the in the background and Ganego's almost dead face lightened up cheerfully.

"Yeah! Yeah! We'll do that!" Sarah jumped up cheerfully, this will be like having a big sister exactly! The girl then turned around and looked over to her,

"What do you think Izuru-nee?" Said brunette jumped up from being addressed.

"Well I think it's a good idea!" The male teen proclaimed cheerfully, draping his arm over Sarah. "Haru-chan would be able to take care of you-"

"And we'll be able to talk to each other a lot more!" Sarah interrupted cheerfully and happily, as she couldn't wait to start having a sleep over with the bored girl.

At least...she thought it had been a good idea.

"That's not a good idea." Haruhane Eisel, a true Japanese man through and through with dark hair and eyes. The only thing about him non-traditional was his one piercing that had seemed like it had been on there for ages.

"Huuuhh? Why not? You have plenty of room!" She emphasized, waving her arms around to broadcast just one of the bathrooms that Haruhane had been washing his face in. How she found him, even she could not entirely comprehend.

"My father doesn't like housing women he hasn't interviewed." Haruhane replied to her actions, simply placing his washcloth down as its business had been finished with.

"WHAT!?" That didn't make sense at all! "I haven't been interviewed!"

"Oh? Haven't you?" Haruhane made sure to throw his best questioning look (which Sarah gave him props considering the man wasn't supposed to feel emotions at all). The blonde then tilted her head to think about any sort of interview...and she had. Right before she came to America her teacher had asked her a bunch of odd questions that she would have never expected from the man until she had finished answering them all. Huh...Then again, maybe she had been interviewed.

'How is that guy' she thought of Haruhane's father at the cue in her own thoughts, 'such a control freak?' Sarah had only had the privilege to meet the man once, and she was sure that, that time didn't count anymore considering a certain small adventure with a time-shifter, but when she had met him he had been pleasant and nice. In fact, she hadn't even thought of him as Haruhane's father considering the drastic changes to both of their personalities. Then again, Haruhane was under a contract with God, his father was not. The blonde took a smart second to recall the whole mess that had happened and how sad she felt at the end of the adventure.

The teen then ignored her feelings with the after-thought of 'People are so weird sometimes' and jumped after Haruhane as he placed his glasses on and walked out of the bathroom. "Then we'll just hide her! There's plenty of room!" She emphasized once again even though Haruhane was in front of her and not paying attention at all.

"If you want to, then go ahead. I was just warning you that my father doesn't like women he doesn't know."

"How is your father so misogynist?" She demanded for an answer and Haruhane just groaned it out,

"My father's not misogynist, he just doesn't like women he doesn't know a thing about." Yeah, because that just explained everything, right? Sarah shook her long hair then grabbed Haruhane's hand. A blush came to her face cheerfully,

"You'll help, right?" The tall Japanese man stood still for a moment and looked away, even though she couldn't see his face in the first place.

"...I suppose." The girl jumped and found her arms wrapping around the chest of the super-strong bored. She found a smile embarrassing her entire face,

"Yay! Thank you Eisel-san!"

"Let go please." He said in his polite yet dull tone. The girl found her tongue sticking out playfully,

"Not till I'm done with this hug!" In response he just sighed and let her finish the hug. Sarah had never been so happy to go to sleep.

The Next Day

Sarah stared at the door to the 'hide-out', wondering why Ganego had told her to come by early that day. The door opened by Ganego who seemed to look around uneasily and let her in. The first sight Sarah saw as she entered was Izuru walking out from the strange halls that the hide-out had with a beautiful looking coat, pants, and a long skirt that covered her front and back. "Oh wow!" She commented loudly, "Izuru-nee, you look so beautiful!" She complimented the Asian woman, staring with a little bit of envy. Asian women were always so pretty...and she could tell that the clothes were of Izuru's own design. Ever since she had been stuck in the illusion of Izuru's own mind, she had learned to study what were Izuru's clothes and what wasn't. Needless to say, Izuru had good taste.

"Alright, be ready for a fight the instant I open the door." The only male in the house-hold commented, reaching for the sliding door (which was dangerous now that Sarah thought about it, why would the front door of the house be a sliding door? Weren't they afraid of burglars or something as terrifying as that?).

"Oh I'm sure you're exaggerating Shizuma-kun." The blonde rolled her eyes and Ganego just shook his head, opening the door only to be faced with an extremely loud roar filtering through the house.

"Wonderful...a dragon boredom."

"A WHAT!?" Ganego just reached for the back of his uniform pocket, pulling out a small ball and sighing heavily.

"Sometimes the contract will physically alter the appearance of the signer. In this case, we have a dragon boredom." The boy then threw the strange little ball yelling out, "D.J.-field!" and it bypassed a strange looking man with green-hair and two absorption signs underneath his left eye. However, all in all, he didn't looking anything like a dragon in Sarah's imagination.

"He doesn't look like a dragon." She voiced her thoughts as Ganego rushed her, pushing her back lightly when the strange boy roared loudly, his shirt breaking slightly at the beginning of his arms, a violent look crossing the boy's face. "I TAKE THAT BACK!" The blonde yelled as fire crossed the living room and Ganego had managed to completely force her back. The boy guided her to behind a couch, where Sarah was sure an epic battle was taking place, but she wasn't paying attention at all.

"Dammit! I was hoping it would be without the mental defense." Ganego fell back from his watching place for a second, cursing, "I hate dragons!"

"Mental?" Sarah asked, now that he was hidden with her completely.

"Yeah, dragons have an immunity to magic, even back in the really old days," of which Sarah assumed to be the days of castles and a certain sword that was thrown back into a certain lake, "Izuru-chan's illusions could be considered magic under the dragon's defense system, depending on the dragon."

'Dragons...so they were actually real? This has gotten too crazy for me.' The blonde thought to herself. This was ridiculous, there was no such thing as dragons! Of course her thoughts were revoked the instant she heard the loud roaring of a fire being cast in the room. Temperature seemed to rise in the entire room and Sarah found herself sweating in uneagerness. At the rise both teens looked from the couch cushions safely watching as Izuru did a Matrix(2) fly backwards and kicked the dragon boredom to the stomach. "She's pretty flexible, isn't she?"

"Well all she does is train all day." Ganego commented back and they watched as the dragon grabbed Izuru by the foot she had just kicked him with and swing the woman around to hit a field that Sarah hadn't seen was there before. The brunette made a loud sound at being hit there but simply rolled away, flipping and moving so that she could use her force to hit the dragon on the head. At the immediate kick, the dragon flew back and Sarah found herself ducking to hide herself as he bumped forcefully into the couch. The dragon must have turned around and prepped for fire again, but the fire seemed to have been stopped short of its goal of completely charcoaling the good bored. "Great! Izuru-chan got him when he was breathing!" The red-eyed teen cheered, "He must have been internally weak!" He jumped out from his spot in the couch and ran up to the spot the dragon had previously been. Sarah's goal had been the other fighter,

"Are you okay Izuru-nee?"

"Un." She commented back, and Sarah immediately spotted something wrong as it was extremely loud compared to Izuru's blue eyes.

"But you're bleeding!"

"I am?" Izuru asked in a good questionable tone, blinking slightly as Ganego seemed to come up for an answer for the blood pouring from her forehead.

"Must have been when he knocked her against the shield." Ganego finally moved from examining the spot the bad boredom had been and looked over to Sarah with a somewhat exaggerated look, "D.J.-san's magic is pretty volatile."

"I see." Indeed, Izuru was still bleeding, almost like she would need stitches. They should do something about that...

"D.J.-field drop!" The strange force field that she had only really saw that day disappeared, dropping into a mist form and back into the strange ball that Ganego had thrown earlier in the battle. Now maybe she could look over that wound, "And now! We run to Haru's house!" Whatever thought of concern Sarah had for the wound disappeared and fled like it was being chased by fire.

'Running...' And thus they did. As they reached the mansion, Izuru and Ganego was the only ones who had been able to still breathe enough to walk to the huge front door of the mansion.

"Sorry I wasn't there." Haruhane spoke as Ganego relied the information needed of their latest and oh-so thrilling adventure.

'You say not sounding sorry at all!' Sarah's mind yelled at her as she breathed heavily and almost cried to herself. Running...and walking...that seemed to be all she was doing now a days and it was killing her. She hated using her legs more then they should be used...and it was half a mile from the hide-out and Haruhane's house (and only because they took a short-cut)! Ganego didn't seem to sense the subtle hostility in the air and just beamed like the sun,

"Okay Haru-chan!" He waved his finger around happily, "Please take care of Izu-chan! I'll take care of Gesell-san!" The dark-haired teen then waved good-bye and the adults standing at the huge door, nodded almost dully as Ganego dragged Sarah to start using her legs even more.

"Take care of Izuru-nee!" She emphasized to the brunet with glasses, heaving heavily as she started to follow after Ganego. Thus the two adults were left alone as they watched the teenagers run off to school before the bell would ring. Haruhane turned quietly and Izuru followed him as silently. However, looking at the halls and the huge welcoming room, memories started to fly back to the brunette. Little children ran across her view like ghosts and disappearing even faster then they had came. Izuru...wasn't exactly sure what she was feeling, but she was sure she was feeling. Haruhane led her to a room that had music she couldn't understand lightly tinting the air with it.

"American music?" She questioned, feeling the slight rhythm and the light use of words that sounded like English, but she wasn't exactly sure. Haruhane quickly amended the music, turning it off,

"Yes." He replied though, "I was listening to it before you came, I must have forgotten to shut it off." The woman silently looked as he sat comfortably at a chair, which had been situated at a desk with a large monitor on it. Izuru wasn't that good with computers personally, but she understood the basics enough not to destroy the object with viruses by accident,

"You like music?" Haruhane shrugged at the question while Izuru stood still at the open door and stared at the screen with a dull look of contemplation. Haruhane interrupted her thoughts with a comment,

"You should probably come in," He recommended, "Before one of the maids discover you." The woman nodded and shut the door, with a soft thud. She then slowly walked over to where Haruhane was, staring at the screen as he moved his swivel chair to focus on the screen ahead of him. There was a lot of things that Izuru knew that if she tried she still wouldn't be able to understand it. Izuru supposed that this also had to do with the work of Haruhane's father that Sarah had commented about yesterday.

"What was the song that was playing?" She asked curiously, only knowing one American title song and that song was from a small band that didn't make it and only ended up selling the song's rights to a bigger band.

"Loser." Haruhane's hands started to move in a fury that could make most men jealous and many windows filled the computer screen with a computer language that Izuru couldn't understand. Haruhane paused for a second though and leaned back in his chair almost casually, "Is this how being in the contract feels?"

"...Yes..." The brunette answered honestly. After all, she had been underneath the contract for three years and she had yet to feel different. It was hard to describe how it felt to be under a contract of this magnitude. Her body was always tingling in a strange way but it still felt as numb and cold as the day she signed the contract. Her right hand where her absorption points were always felt like it was on fire and in eager need to feed on the souls of the darkness, but Haruhane didn't have any absorption points, so he wouldn't know about that feeling.

"It doesn't...feel any different."

"That's..." She hesitated, not quite sure how to respond to that part of the conversation. Izuru wasn't much of an explainer, she had never been. "Go-chan can explain that better then I can." She finished as she usually would with a question like that. It was the truth, Go knew how to talk and he knew what to say. The woman had a feeling that if she had any emotions that she would be at least a little jealous of Ganego. The chair Haruhane leaned backward completely in a comforting motion like a Lazy-Boy. Izuru started to take off her jacket, fiddling with it lightly,

"You haven't fought every day yet...give it some times." Was the only response she could give to the stranger...the stranger whom she was sure was a small person at one time that she had mistaken as a girl. Haruhane Eisel...Had...Had he been bored this entire time? How long...had he...

COLLAPSE

The sound effect had been pure and loud as most would not expect it to at all. Sarah heaved and panted as she made it up the four-height climb to her seat and that taken all of her energy. The blonde took as big of breaths as she could and the boy next to her shifted slightly.

"You're a little late." He whispered as the foreign exchange student. Sarah had been lucky that their home teacher was a senile, ditzy woman otherwise she would have gotten detention. The girl barely managed to lift her head to give the dark-haired Japanese boy with a heated glare. After one more loud breathe she angrily thought to herself,

'Oh man! I really don't want to talk to this guy!' Satoshi Tonomi, she knew next to nothing about this dark-haired youth except that he liked to talk to her whenever he could and that apparently, he was also a meany-head (according to Sarah's inarticulate thoughts). The blonde had still been bothered by the last time she had to deal with him and his conversation skills(3). However, 'But I didn't go to drama class for three years in middle school for nothing! I'll just act my way out!' The blonde pulled her books from underneath her table, getting ready for the lesson up ahead and commented in a beautiful fake smile, "Yes I'm afraid I woke up late!" She lied. Satoshi rose an eyebrow for a moment then sniffed the air.

"You smell..." The serious look that Satoshi had adopted kind of scared the blonde. She moved her chair a bit getting ready to bolt if she had too but Satoshi quickly just made her feel angry, "Like sweat."

"I HAD TO RUN OKAY!?" She screamed at him with her loudest voice as he covered his nose as though she was reeking the air with an unpleasant smell. He waved his hand as the ditzy teacher in front seemed shocked for a moment,

"Gesell-san!" She yelled up, disappointed in the girl's action, though she immediately lightened up as Sarah started to bow.

"Oops! Sorry Sensei!" The blonde bowed twice and sat at her desk, humbled while Satoshi only bowed his head once. Sarah then grabbed for her pencil, gripping it tightly. 'Ass!' But Satoshi just hummed to himself, staring down at the teacher as she continued to take roll. The day slowly drifted, everyone dealing with his or her own respective problems and lives. Particularly Haruhane had just stopped a forth invader in his mansion that was specifically after Izuru. Izuru absorbed said intruder as they choked under Haruhane's strong hold against the wall and Izuru gave a soft sigh.

"D.J. would say I shouldn't absorb anymore today." Haruhane also gave his own sigh, looking up at a huge hole in the wall that had been made by their latest guest.

"Do you think they may be tracking you?" The brunette blinked, staring at her hand as it had become numb as it always had whenever she came this close to completing the amount of times she could absorb a day.

"It'd be unorthodox, at least that's what D.J. would say." She replied another person's words easily.

"This is going to be odd to explain to father." Haruhane commented, staring closely at the hole. Izuru blinked at her mouth ran faster then her own thoughts,

"I'll explain if you don't want to."

"...Don't bother." Was that a masculine answer or just a bored reaction? Izuru looked at the hole closely this time around as Haruhane had inspecting it then looked over at him,

"What is it one usually says in this situation?" There was a moment of silence before the brunette nodded to herself, "Oh...Thank you." Haruhane simply nodded and the two made their way back into his study room. The day continued to filter through time at a moderate pace and Ganego stared dully at the girl who had addressed him. She was the Head of the Disciplinary Committee (with arm band attached) (4) and her name was Himeno Sakurazaki. The dark-haired girl threw her unnatural ponytail behind her (only for it to fall in front of her again) and she glared at Ganego.

"Don't give me that look." She waved a finger angrily, her glasses shining with disappointment. "You have clean up duty (5) today!"

"...Wha? But I usually do it on Saturdays." The red-eyed teen honestly replied, confused and looking at the vast of desks then back to the chalkboard. Himeno glared even harsher and her band seemed to actually glow with her emotions.

"You skipped out last Saturday."

"Really? I don't remember that." Which was true, his perception of time had been off every since the last incident. Hm, now that he thought about it, time seemed to be moving oddly...

"That's because you were dragged off by some high schooler." A venom tone evident in her voice, while Ganego looked away uneasily. Himeno then started out on a rant, which Ganego had to agree with because it was the truth. "You're so improper! Associating with a high-schooler before and after school, living with an older woman," How the Disciplinary Committee knew about Izuru, Ganego wasn't sure if he wanted to know. "And your tattoo-" That comment made Ganego freeze a bit, she was about to continue before,

"Sakurazaki-san." His voice seemed to pierce the very air and Himeno just stood there, listening to what the other boy had to say. "I know that it's inappropriate but I have permission from the school so it's not as inappropriate." A dark smile seemed to cross the boy as he stared at the Committee member. Himeno just shook her head,

"Whatever. Just don't forget to clean." With those words she left to catch some other acts that needed discipline to them. Ganego watched as she left with some steel in his gaze and turned away, looking at his classroom that was filled with people just eating and talking to each other.

"Yeah, I'll just skip out on that." Ganego found himself speaking to himself, nobody paying any attention to him (as they always did, Ganego was strange-looking after all). "Now I'm pissed."

"Why did you drag me up here to have lunch?" Sarah asked the boy who she held a bitter grudge over, but the worse thing was she shouldn't had been holding that grudge because technically he didn't make fun of her. Satoshi had dragged her up the stairs of the school's halls and up to the roof where chain link fences kept it possible to prevent anybody from falling. The air was slightly cold and Sarah shivered slightly in her school uniform. Reminder to self, if Satoshi ever asked her again if she had a bento (6), lie.

"I felt like it, that's why." Satoshi honestly replied and turned around to the girl, "Did you know? It's going to start snowing soon. It usually starts snowing around Mid-November."

"Do you like winter Tonomi-san?" The blonde pulled her bento's covering off, smiling to herself. Had it already been two months? She would have to leave in two months...

"Actually I hate winter." If there was supposed to be some cryptic tone to that answer, it flew over Sarah's head as she sat down and pulled the colored scarf off from her lunch.

"Yeah, winter's pretty cold after all." Satoshi blinked and shook his head.

"That's...ah, well." He gave up trying to explain, especially as Sarah interrupted to continue her part of the conversation.

"I only really like winter for the holidays." The girl pulled out a pair of chopsticks and started to bite into the gathered rice. "Sounds selfish of me but I like it because I get to stay with my family and out of school." The girl cheerfully commented then looked off. "Though it didn't snow that often where I lived."

"Is that so?" Satoshi brought out an apple, sitting next to the girl. Sarah nodded,

"Uh-huh. I love spending time with my brother the most."

"Brother?" Sarah found herself brightening up immediately and pulled out the picture she carried in her wallet. A trip to the zoo, though the picture was a little old.

"Yeah, Abe. He's such a sweet little thing." Sarah gushed, one of her chopsticks sticking out of her mouth. Satoshi took out a piece of bread this time around as he finished his apple quickly,

"He looks nothing like you." The dark-haired boy realized as he looked at the picture closely. Sarah felt a little bitterness flow through her veins. Dammit, another non-believer!

"Half brother." She explained bitterly. Satoshi nodded at this then stared at the picture (taking it from her hand).

"He looks slightly Asian."

"His father's Japanese. My step-father's full name is Kinamotou Arashi." Satoshi jumped as she spoke the last name and he stared at her with a look that was with utmost terror.

"K-Kinamotou!?" Sarah quickly amended herself, telling a lie she knew that she would have to eventually. After all, her stepfather was estranged from his family and had wanted to do nothing with the world that his family was in.

"Not that Kinamotou," She lied, "My dad's always getting angry at people who compare him to that gang." She let her feelings for the Kinamotou family flow for a moment and quickly amended herself, "Uh...I mean...Cooperation." Satoshi merely nodded at this and Sarah felt relieve flow through her veins as the teen believed her. Being a Kinamotou would not be good news to get out.

"Sorry, it's just that the Kinamotou's are famous for...their...dealings." Satoshi looked away darkly for a moment and Sarah understood. The Kinamotou Cooperation was basically a big huge business tycoon, however they controlled over more then just economy at times. There had been a lot of foul rumors of their entire acts and chances were that over seventy-five percent of those rumors were true. Being a Kinamotou just merely meant you were entitled to control over the company in certain parts. The Cooperation also held areas under their own little control like a Yakuza(7) could. Especially away from the eyes of the police, who probably knew what was going on but had no proof.

"My dad's not one of them." She said honestly, remembering her stepfather's happy grin back at him. Satoshi laughed,

"But I bet you're used to rich people."

"Hell no." The blonde outrightly cursed, "I'm probably one of the poorest people you will ever meet." The girl then blinked as she noticed Satoshi biting into a strangely familiar food-product and she glared. "THAT'S MY ONIGIRI(8)!" She swiped the food away from him, her fury building up. "Pig!" She felt like crying, she always enjoyed eating her onigiri in lunch. It made lunch happy and something to look forward to.

"Hogger." Satoshi grunted back, giving her his own glare.

"You calling me an oinker!?" She yelled at him.

"I think you're taking it out of context." He simply replied and Sarah fumed, throwing her arms in the air and screeching. After getting the yell done and only accomplished being stared at by the dark-haired teen, she calmed down and stared at her eaten onigiri with a deep sense of loss.

"You know Tonomi-san...you're pretty weird." She really didn't know why she said that, but she had a feeling she wanted to hurt the boy's feelings like he had done with hers.

"I think you're odd to say so." Grrr.

"I mean...you act like a good guy but then you also seem to be..." She fumbled with the words, which was strange because English had been her number one subject.

"I'll just take it as a compliment." He simply finished for her in a cocky manner. The blonde felt a tremor of anger and irritation cross her mind but she ignored it as the door to the roof opened rapidly and loudly.

"Gesell-san!" Ganego seemed surprised that she was here, and a look of frustration crossed his face for a moment but it was gone as soon as it passed.

"Is it lunch-break for the middle-schoolers(9) too?" Ganego just ignored the question and looked at the other person with her with a rather blank look.

"Who's this?"

"This is Tonomi-san, a classmate." Sarah didn't see the look of irritation cross Satoshi's face. Ganego found himself smiling but jumped as something surged through his mind almost angrily. His temple throbbed and he felt his tattoo cry out in his brain, immediately the teen turned to where the power surge was emerging. Glaring at it with confusion then flipped out his cell-phone. "Shizuma-kun, are you okay?" While he was glad to have her concern, it was kind of annoying the pain must have shown on his face. The boy rubbed his tattoo for a moment, dialing Haruhane's personal cell-phone.

"I'm fine, I'm just checking on Izu-chan." It started to reach and he held it against his ear, vaguely listening to the conversation between the two older then himself.

"Who's Izu-chan?" Sarah smiled at this and Ganego liked that a lot, but he mainly focused on listening to the dial tone.

"She's like my older sister! She's great!"

"Eisel, Haruhane." Haruhane's voice was crisp and clear as it usually was, not that Ganego expected any different.

"Hey," He turned away and started to whisper into the phone just in case whoever this Tonomi-san was, was listening. "How many times has Izu-chan absorbed today?"

"Four. There have been more coming though and they're all...bothersome."

"I see..." Ganego turned around, turning off the call after getting the information he needed. From the call he could tell that Haruhane wasn't having any problem taking down any of the boredom that flew to the mansion. Sarah had seemed to finished talking to Satoshi and walked up to Ganego with slight concern,

"Something wrong Shizuma-kun?"

"Nope." He answered honestly, giving a fake smile though in return as his temple still throbbed, "She's just fine. She just has to avoid working more today." While he knew the girl didn't know what that was code for, he was sure that she would figure it out eventually. Sarah seemed to nod at his comment then jumped,

"Oh! Shizuma-kun, what are you going to do about tonight?"

"I'll just spend the night a friend's house." He lied. After all, he was in no way going to abandon the hide-out, considering it had a lot of D.J.'s stuff that could be used for the wrong purpose if anybody could figure out how the wiring worked. That...and...well...it was home.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong Shizuma-kun?" She pestered in a worried manner and Ganego just looked up, feeling his eye twitch in rhythm to his tattoo's ache.

"Nope. Now if you would excuse me." The teen moved back out to the door, forgetting his original intention on being on the roof in the first place and leaned against the door harshly. 'Please don't let it be a Gate. It can only mean two things if it's a Gate...someone really powerful...or something even worse...' Ganego gave a groan, rubbing his head again as it seemed to grow stronger for a moment. 'And of course, D.J.-san is gone. Magic-casting bastard'. While Sarah stared in a concerned way at the closed door, she knew she couldn't let it show in front of Satoshi. After all, the guy might start questioning on what her connection with Ganego was, and that would be a very bad thing, especially considering how much she wanted to tell someone else about the hidden world of boredom. So she turned around,

"Hey! Tonomi-san! How tall are you?" Satoshi just rose an eyebrow.

"That's a really random question to ask after the appearance and disappearance of a middle schooler." However Satoshi stared as Sarah gave him sparkly eyes and a questioning puppy look. The boy continued to stare then looked over, "5'5." Sarah turned around and growled loudly and Satoshi could have sworn he heard something like 'The evil short complex returns!', though that may had been his imagination. The dark-haired teen found himself smiling though, she was definitely weird..."Don't worry! I'm sure you're still growing!"

"SHUT UP!" The lunch-bell soon rang and Sarah rushed to class, muttering to herself how much she hated him. Satoshi however, couldn't help but just keep smiling.

'What can make a person want to be the best they can be and at the same time, be the absolute worse?' They had sat down and already Sarah had placed on her strange thick glasses that she really only pulled out for History. There was a paper in front of her to take notes and she whispered random things to herself as though it would help her understand what the teacher was talking about. 'Is it the appearance of something new? Or is it really a state you've always been in without realizing it?' Satoshi glanced over at Sarah who seemed even more frustrated then normal. Muttering about a person's name should be a town or not. The dark-haired teen just smiled to himself darkly, writing down perfect notes, 'Who knows the truth? I do know though...I'm finally interested in something after a long time.' School had finished in a somewhat torturing manner but Satoshi found himself following the blonde as she waited in front of the gates of the school.

"Huh? You wanna walk me home?" Satoshi could have sworn there were flowers flowing around her from the question.

"Is that strange?" He questioned, tilting his head slightly. Sarah blinked and just shook her head with a confused look,

"No, I guess not...but why?" She had a slight suspicious tone, so Satoshi merely decided to fuel the fire.

"I want the pleasure of saying I walked an exotic blonde foreigner home." He laughed and said foreigner just turned around with a look of pure disgust on her face. Not surprising, really. "So what are we waiting on?" He noticed as they stood still for about five minutes.

"Shizuma-kun." The blonde smiled and said boy ran up, proclaiming a loud 'hey' in the process. "Ah! Shizuma-kun!" Satoshi turned around and for the first time he could get a good glance at the teen. Satoshi studied the boy closely and it was obvious that he was definitely more than he looked. Satoshi stared mostly at the tattoo on Ganego's left brow, feeling somewhat drawn in by it.

"What's with the red 66...or something?" He couldn't tell if there was more or if it was covered by Ganego's bangs. At asking such an innocent question he was hit harshly on the head by Sarah's fist.

"That's rude!" She hissed and Satoshi got the aching feeling as though she was also curious of the tattoo.

"It's fine Gesell-san." Ganego interrupted her rampage from choking Satoshi. The two older teens looked over as Ganego pulled away his bangs to reveal his tattoo more closely. It was a red-stained and was made like a computer typed it on his forehead. Two sixes, except the last six was only half completed. "My big brother gave it to me, he thought it was pretty cool." Despite the fact that Ganego was underage? What an irresponsible older brother! Then again, she was surprised that Ganego had an older brother. She had just assumed he was an only child...

"Why are you surprised?" Satoshi whispered to her while Ganego just continued in his tale.

"It was pretty painful too! I wouldn't suggest anyone else getting a tattoo in the same place!" Ganego laughed in a carefree nature.

"...But why's it a 66? Why isn't the last six finished?" Satoshi asked in a curious motion, stepping aside so Sarah didn't get the chance to hit him.

"Not sure," Ganego's tone lingered for a moment, "my brother wasn't exactly the smartest tool in the shed." They had been walking while they had been talking and Sarah didn't even get a chance to linger on the thought when Ganego turned down an alley that Sarah recognized, "Well, I gotta turn here. See ya!" And thus he turned, they watched Ganego walk off into the distance and they continued.

"Isn't the number six evil?" Satoshi bitterly asked and Sarah twitched.

"A number more suited for you," she hissed. "Don't talk that way about Shizuma-kun." It was okay if he made fun of her, just lay off of her friends...Sarah blinked at her own thoughts. "Who knows what his brother was thinking." She simply finished, walking briskly ahead of the dark-haired teen angrily. Of which he caught up quickly while she kept quiet in her thoughts, thinking more carefully about the subject. 'A big brother though...I wonder what he's like...' She imagined a military man, considering the fact that he wasn't there at the home with Ganego. Her mental image was of a handsome Japanese man...Satoshi's thoughts were a little different as he bitterly thought of how comfortable Sarah seemed to be with the younger teen.

'Augh, and that guy reminds me TOO much of my older brother'. An image of his older brother smiling brightly at him filtered though his imagination and he felt himself twitching. The two continued walking casually, both thinking different things but at the same time didn't seemed effected by each other for once. About an hour later they made it to the large mansion and Satoshi stared up, "I've only seen this from afar...It isn't as fancy as I thought it'd be."

"Well...I think having a mansion in the first place is pretty fancy." They stared up at the huge Eisel mansion, which was simple architecture but the pillars climbed up over thirty feet and the doorway was huge. Sarah turned then and found herself blushing, "Well...it was...different...but...uhh...thanks." Her face was implanted on the ground the entire time she spoke. Satoshi rose an eyebrow at her shy behavior,

"Uh...sure?" 'Doesn't the guy normally say that? This girl really is odd.' They waved good-bye to each other and Sarah pushed the mansion door open. Immediately a knife flew past her head and into the door. She couldn't even scream with how terrified she was, but she did eventually manage to turn slowly to the knife and stare at it. The girl then turned back to the one who threw the knife who was standing at a firm posture,

"Sorry. Thought you might have been a bored." Sarah's breath finally caught up with her tension and immediately went into a mental rant that she wasn't really in any danger. After all, Haruhane would know if she was a bored or not! She calmed down after her rant and looked up at Haruhane in a hesitant stare.

"Where's Izuru-nee?"

"My office." He answered her, passing her to grab the knife he had thrown earlier. There was no way that Haruhane would really hit anybody with that sharp knife. She then ran to the hidden room that was specifically made for Haruhane with a computer and many books, a study basically. The blonde made it in then closed the door, seeing the woman in the computer.

"Izuru-nee!" She called to her happily, her eyes brimming with happiness and Izuru turned to her, without her coat on. There was a small smile on the brunette's face,

"Good evening Gesell." Sarah found herself jumping around the girl to give her a hug.

'I made her smile!'

"Good day?"

"Better then I thought it would be!" Sarah answered honestly, loving the fact that Izuru made a slight reaction to her. It was a really happy thing! Sarah then looked up slightly and looked at the computer screen, an article on plain sight on them. "What are you doing?"

"...Research."

"Research?" The blonde blinked as Izuru moved from Sarah's hug to click the article off.

"Nothing important." Hm...Sarah looked up for a moment, thinking about the picture on the article and smiled as she recognized police officers on the picture.

"Do you want to be a detective, Izuru-nee?" She asked honestly. After all, what other reason could Izuru be researching old articles about old crimes?

"Where'd you get that idea?"

"Well...that was an old police report, right?" Izuru nodded because she had been asked, "And you'd seem to be the type who could be a police detective!"

"R-Really?" Izuru faced her with a blank look on her face but Sarah jumped in even more happiness noticing a blush cross the woman's face. However as she stared longer in Izuru's face she noticed an ugly mark, so uninhibited she slapped the girl's cheeks.

"Go take a bath. I will not have you getting an infection." She gave her most fiercest glare and pushed the woman up to go to the bathroom. Pointing angrily she yelled, "And clean that wound correctly!" Izuru walked off, looking as though in a bit of a daze. After seeing Izuru disappear, Sarah smiled and nodded as she turned off the computer. "Alright, a change would be a good idea now." She moved to reach the second story part of the house to her exclusive room and came out to walk back down the halls. While she walked down the halls Haruhane spotted her,

"Father's home...I've changed my mind about explaining to him the hole." Whatever the hole was, Sarah wasn't sure, but she couldn't help but think.

"Why don't you just lie?"

"It's a sin." Was the blunt reply back, and Sarah couldn't help but think that life would be a lot easier if everybody thought like that. "I'll just get Izuru to do it then." With that, he turned and walked off as though he knew where she was. Sarah nodded, understanding that explaining things to your parents is a lot easier if it was someoneelse doing it. However she kept thinking...Haruhane finding Izuru...chances were...

"WAIT! EISEL-SAN!" The girl chased after him rapidly and stared in horror as Haruhane opened a door to a steaming bathroom. As the door swung open, Izuru blinked, being barely covered by two towels and she turned to the person who came in.

"Hello Eisel." Eisel nodded, his glasses steaming up slightly and both of the adults were unaffected by seeing each other. Haruhane then started his request,

"Hey-" was all he could get out however as Sarah jumped on him, covering his eyes to the best of her ability and she shrieked as she saw Haruhane's father walk up because of the commotion around the area.

'WE COULDN'T EVEN HIDE HER FOR A DAY!' She shrieked in her mind, crying loudly to herself.

"Who is this Haru?" Haruhane's father questioned, an icy tone apparent, especially when the older man actually opened his dark-almost-black eyes to glare at the stranger. Izuru however seemed oblivious to the glare and walked up to the man, representing herself with an open hand,

"My name is Izuru, it's nice to meet you." Because technically, he had been talking about her after all. So she should go ahead and answer.

"Izuru is my guest, father," Haruhane commented, easily lifting Sarah off of himself and to the side. "She will only stay here for a time that has yet to be discussed."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"...I see..." The man gave a sharp stare over at the woman he had yet to actually shake hands with and Sarah could see that there was a huge disapproval in his eyes.

"Please let her stay Eisel-sama!" Sarah begged, panicking inwardly. The man looked over at Sarah for a moment, who folded her hands politely and looked down to stare quietly and humblely.

"...Very well. Haru send her down later to be interviewed by Walter." With that, he moved his robe to follow him like a cloak and disappeared down the large hallway. There was nothing but a blank silence in the air when Haruhane blinked,

"Father was more rational than usual."

'That was rational? I'd hate to see him unrational! I thought I was about to have a heart attack!' She had been having that feeling a lot more lately. Sarah then rapidly turned to Izuru, blushing heavily as the towel was getting closer and closer to falling off. "IZURU! GET DRESSED IN THE BATHROOM!" She yelled, pushing the woman, appalled by the other's lack of shame.

In a pub in an unknown area

D.J. leaned against a bar, a mysterious green liquid tanker near him and the red-skinned magic-caster groaned. The special brand of alcohol that supernatural beings could absorb wasn't helping at all, he could feel his magic pulsing and aching to be released. His entire body twitched until he heard a familiar voice,

"D.J. Hello there." As stories are often not connected until the end, they have their own little points of interaction. D.J. looked up at the voice to see a young-looking man with deep blue eyes, paleish sort of skin, and dark black hair that hung loosely in a ponytail. Though there was always a particular feature that made D.J. twitch as a magic-caster and that was the stone that hung around the youth's neck. It was blood-red and was completely connected to the stranger, but it made him twitch because it always made him feel uneasy how much evil was usually in the stone...however...

"Aston!" The d'jinn greeted the long-ago friend as the man sat down next to him, placing his own drink to the bar, "...You look different." Well, Aston wasn't as pale as he usually was, his eyes weren't the red color it usually was, and the stone...didn't have any evil radiating from it.

"Well," a usually forbidden blush crossed the vampire's face, "I found my human." He finished pointing out to said human with a thumb. D.J. took a courteous glance and found that indeed there was a human in the middle of the pub, at a chair with a red-haired elf. Her face was covered with a bandage and both of her ears were pierced, while her brown hair reminded D.J. of an angel's wings by being behind her ears naturally. He couldn't see her eyes because the girl was currently arguing with the redhead with a frustrated blush spread across her face. D.J. didn't care much though and turned back to the old friend.

"So the legend's actually true?"

"Yeah!" The legend was almost as old as a vampire was. If a human were to defeat a vampire..."And she's definitely strong!"

"...But a female?" D.J. rose a mystical eyebrow in exasperation, knowing full well that Aston was not a pushover. Nor was he ever a lady-chaser, so if a woman fought against him, he would have to qualms usually to beat her and drain her of her blood.

"Yup, and she beats the crap out of me daily." While D.J. heard some truth to those words, he wasn't quite so sure if Aston meant it physically.

"Really? So, what's her name?" He pretended to give a crap. It was nice and all that Aston found his human, but it didn't really matter to D.J. Then again, that was how all d'jinn were. He shook his head angrily from his own thoughts to listen more closely to the pale youth.

"Hiromi Kanezaki." He accented her last name, as though having trouble with it otherwise.

"A Japanese girl?" He took a glance over again, not seeing the usual Asian body-type. Oh sure she was skinny, but her muscles were toned and her body wasn't necessarily little.

"Yeah, I stopped by in Japan to get some food and she ended up beating the crap out of me." D.J. stared closely at the girl again and she did seem like she had the heart of a fighter but to beat Aston? It was completely unheard of.

"Huh, you'd think you would have found your human in America." She wasn't bored, that much D.J. could tell with her flittering emotions and temper flowing around freely. Human emotions were a curse in the supernatural realm, so it was easy to read them and influence them.

"The big cultural melting pot of genetics, huh?" Aston simply replied in a blank tone, looking away as though the mention of America was sad. While D.J. didn't know what was so sad about America, he could tell that Aston needed to hear a different subject.

"Well I'm just surprised the legend actually exists." He turned to take a bit from his tankard and Aston sighed almost happily.

"It's very real." The legend of a vampire being beaten but still kept alive. A human would inherit all of the strength the vampire had without any of the negative side effects, the reader could imagine why that seemed unbelievable. "What about you? Has that girl gotten any closer to breaking your contract?"

"Not sure." He replied honestly, especially considering when that blonde American came around. Apparently she made some sort of impact in Izuru's life. What impact that was, D.J. couldn't understand nor did he think he ever would. "But she's Japanese too, so I just find it funny."

"...Because of the rumors of pure mutants from those blended with their DNA?"

"...Actually I heard a rumor that someone made their own contract. Someone with the power of God." D.J. whispered, and just the sheer mention of the rumor made their spines crawl. Someone with the power of God? Impossible.

"We saw her...she's terrifying in battle..." D.J. sensed a lie and for once he noticed why he was sensing emotions from the black-haired man. He didn't have his supernatural human cells anymore. "She pretends to be a bored." He continued whispering, avoiding the subject of battles.

"Pretends?" Aston just shook his head, as though not knowing how else to explain the phenomenon.

"She takes out all the bad bored though, so I'm not exactly worried about it." Someone sat by them, signaling that it would be best to change the subject. After all, even in the supernatural realm, the discussion of the outside world was mostly forbidden, especially with humans with powers. What humans did with their powers and greed was their own business. "So how's your magic?" D.J. twitched. At the mere mention of his magic, it soared all throughout his body, wanting to explode into little firecrackers. So in a strained reply, he grunted back,

"...More active than usual. It's probably Go's fault too." The d'jinn grunted uneagerly. After all, he had no doubt that the surge in his veins was Ganego's fault entirely.

"You should bring pictures next year." Aston cheerfully spoke, wanting to see the children that D.J. kept watch over. He had never seen them before, then again, he wasn't exactly sure when D.J.'s 'time of the year' was, as it had the horrible habit of changing at the drop of a hat.

"Naaah." D.J.'s tone emitted pure laziness, which disheartened Aston for a bit. After all, D.J. saw his human, and they had only been together for barely a year! D.J. then perked up a little, "You still looking for that cup?" Aston felt his entire body tense and he listened intently to D.J.'s works, "Go said something about an underground city." Aston then found his reply slowly filtering in a humor-filled tone.

"I don't think The Creator would like you referring to The Savior's last drink as a cup." The pub was tense at those words for a split second, but they all dispersed into their own little conversations and private acts. The creature that had sat by the two moved, a tad-bit uneasily. "So, underground, huh?" Aston leaned on his hand, thinking about how many cities were actually underground.

"S'what he said."

"Ugh, with my luck, probably past somewhere with those stupid scubi and incubi." Aston hated that race. Sick degenerates who took pleasure in lust and manipulating the humans with their poor wills. At least whenever Aston drank a human's blood he didn't tempt them with his body (and to his understanding, he had a pretty good one).

"Yeah, probably!" D.J. laughed in good humor. Well, at least someone was enjoying his bad time.

"That race just gets me in a foul mood."

"True 'dat!" Aston felt himself smile in spite of himself. Did he just hear D.J. use human slang? Nothing could be as funny as that to him. "But I've heard that the major family's been splitten because their heir is some kind of freak." Aston had met the heir once, and of course with his extreme racism didn't stay long. Conner was his name, and he was everything Aston was not.

"Like you're anyone to talk about freaks." D.J. blinked then waved his hand,

"Right, right. I forgot. On Earth the only thing that's a freak is yourself for making your own Hell by insulting others." Aston blinked,

"That's a long way to say the Golden Rule." There was a loud sound in the background and D.J. saw Aston sigh a bit.

"At any rate, it was good seeing you again Aston."

"You too D.J." The vampire said honestly, "Hope your contract breaks soon." Hiromi hissed through the crowds, anger and embarrassment obvious in the air.

"Hah, good luck for you too!" The d'jinn yelled at him as Aston quickly made it to the middle of the pub only to get hit by Hiromi on the top of the head. D.J. stared for a moment, glad for the momentarily distraction then sighed angrily, leaning against the bar again. His 'legs' flaming outrageously. "Man...I actually miss those humans. The Creator has a stupid sense of humor sometimes." His eye peeked for a moment as though daring thunder to come down and strike him. However nothing like that happened, and he groaned. "Hard to believe it's already been three years already..." The memories of the past three years made him smile slightly. "Hah...I just might explode one day from all of the magic I absorb from them..." The thought of that made him twitch, but it would be worth it..."ARGH! WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT A WEEK!?" His voice echoed in the tavern but nobody paid him any attention.

Back in Matsuhara, Japan

A computer screen filtered on, booting lightly and broadcasting the time as 19:45 (10). It then spoke as it booted, loading like a DSL would with complete wiring sound and telling when it was complete with a 100% loaded. The screen finally popped up to his final boot and the wallpaper in the background was just of a cloudy sky but words popped out and a female computer voice spoke,

"Welcome User Ganego Shizuma." It accented each syllable and Ganego found himself sighing. "How may we, Book, help you today?" Whoever we was, Ganego would never understand. He stared down at the bottom of the screen, which most was written in a language that Ganego knew he would never understand, but more specifically at the ones he could. 'Help' 'Boredom Info' 'Files' (which was password protected) 'Location', and 'D.J. Info'.

"If I didn't know you were made by D.J.-san, I would be creeped out how it knew it was me." Ganego took a long stare at the options circling around the screen, "Especially with that creepy feminine voice." It reminded him of a computer voice you would hear from movies that had robots taking over the world, and the head honcho was usually the computer back home filing out orders in its own subtle way.

"Please do not refer to Book that way. We sense a negative response."

"Okay, okay! Sorry." Ganego apologized, 'Touchy laptop! Of course it's D.J.'s!' Ganego then adjusted the piece on his right eye. It basically looked like a scouter but it had a microphone protruding form the edge of it, "Okay. Go to Help," It flicked on the screen that the computer had did as he asked, "Go to Search," Once again it did as he asked, except this time a search engine popped up that Ganego had no comparison of anything from the real world. "Search for Shiz..." He pause for a second, shaking his head and resumed, "Shintaro Shizuma. Age Thirteen." The laptop started to search, reporting that it was and had a long line that was disappearing and reappearing.

"Search complete. Shintaro Shizuma, Age Thirteen, has not moved since last search." Ganego gave a sigh, backing up a bit in slight confusion.

"Then what the heck is it? It's not a Gate, otherwise he would've moved." The boy spoke out loud as though that would warrant some kind of answer from the computer. However the monitor did nothing and remained emotionless, flouting carefully in the air. Ganego gave a sigh, but it was a good thing it wasn't a Gate. After all...it's too soon to see him again.

"Incoming call from one...Sarah Gesell. Receiving call...Transferring message live to answering machine." The dark-haired teen growled visibly at the monitor.

'And he gets pissed at me with the phone! Every single time I hook this monstrosity up, it takes over the phone wiring! I can never figure out how to use the phone with this thing on!'

"Ah. Right. I forgot you wouldn't be here to pick the phone up...ah...anyway. Shizuma-kun, when you get this message, I hope you'll come by." Sarah's voice filtered in and out for a second and Ganego could hear Izuru in the background. "If you want to that is. See you later!" The phone hung up from Sarah's line and Ganego felt a small smile erupt on his face. He then took off the scouter from his face, placing it down in a visible area to let D.J. know (when the stupid red-skinned d'jinn came back that is) that he was the last one to use the magic-caster's laptop.

"Erase message then shut down Book."

"Understood." The laptop started to curl in on itself, the flouting magic around it disappeared and it thudded on the ground as a strange circular object. Ganego picked it up and placed it on the table next to the scouter. He should head over to the mansion, considering that there was something heading that way anyway. Ganego's tattoo twitched and he growled to himself before exiting the building and starting the half-an-hour trek through alleyways to get to the Eisel Mansion.

"I've never had a slumber party before!" Sarah announced cheerfully, after placing down the phone and bidding the maid who had come in with the phone a good-bye. Sarah was in a different room then she was normally used to, because she had requested a room with a bigger bed so that she could share with Izuru. Izuru gave Sarah a blank look but gave up staring when she started to cuddle with a huge pillow. Izuru sighed blissfully into the pillow and Sarah found herself smiling at the girl's reaction. Obviously, the woman loved pillows. "Hehehe, I'm so glad that my first slumber party is with Izuru-nee!" Though Izuru was pretty sure that Sarah was using the word wrong, she didn't care enough to correct the blonde. "So you for with a lot today, huh?" A cat like face spread on the teen's face, "How 'bout Eisel-san? What do you think of him, Izuru-nee?" Izuru had barely gotten any kind of word in edge-wise to respond to the fighting but Sarah had paused for an answer about Haruhane. Izuru cuddled a bit more with the pillow and sighed a happy reply,

"Eisel-san...who knows?" It really was a reply that any other 'bored' would give. "He's probably good." Also another answer a 'bored' would give, especially considering they both signed the same contract on the same side. "He certainly is strong though." Three, for three, Izuru completed stating the obvious.

"Yeah! He's really strong, and smart, and grown-up!" The brunette looked up at these words, feeling the cheer and embarrassment that came from the girl's voice.

'Grown-up?'

"It's hard to believe he's 'bored'!" Sarah finished, gushing visibly. Izuru could swear she felt a frown tugging at her mouth, but as soon as she thought she felt it, the illusion disappeared.

'Grown-up?' Izuru's mind repeated itself, thinking about it. 'That can't be right. A real grown-up...wouldn't have lost themselves like Eisel...he's still a child, even more than me.' Luckily Izuru was not asked to voice her thoughts and a maid entered in (Saya, her name was, Izuru vaguely remembered),

"Excuse me, someone is at the front door for Gesell-san." Sarah jumped in eagerness.

"Oh? I bet he got my message!" The blonde jumped from the bed with an eager smile, of which Izuru quickly followed after her with a low sigh to herself. The two made out in front of the mansion and there was Ganego standing in a polite manner. "Shizuma-kun!" Addressed he looked a bit and he started blushing immediately considering the two woman were dressed in their nighties. While Ganego knew Izuru didn't care if he saw her or not, he forced his eyes not to focus on Sarah who was wearing a long one-piece dress. "I'm glad you got my message, though I thought you were staying at someone else's house." She had tried to call his cell but that was off for some strange reason. Ganego brushed his front bangs aside for a moment and laughed, looking away subtly and blushing brightly,

"I thought I'd just come by and warn you about something heading this way."

"Oh...that sucks." Sarah was visibly unpleased. Ganego laughed but found himself freezing. Quickly he turned around to see two girls, the tallest one holding unto the smaller one. His blood was frozen and he yelled,

"NO WAIT! IZURU!" As the girl knew immediately that these two were not welcome. Izuru landed a solid blow on the tallest, but then the smaller of the girls threw her head back. Ganego froze as Izuru's illusion energy flew all around, even she seemed a little surprised as it overcame the entire scene.

Chapter VII.
It's Just an Illusion: Part II.

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."
-Isaac Asimov

"Crap." Sarah woke up from the loud almost curse and as she opened her eyes, she flinched slightly, feeling some kind of gas in the air. "Not again, how annoying." That was Ganego's voice, and he was clearly upset. Sarah moved so that she was sitting up, "Let's see...factories everywhere?" Ganego was scratching the back of his head with a bit of frustration and confusion. At Sarah's groan though, Ganego turned to her.

"Shizuma-kun?" She questioned, rubbing her head as she slowly moved to get up.

"Hey Gesell-san." Ganego looked at her firmly for a moment then turned back to the towering factories in the background, "Now where would the center be?" Ignoring his odd sentence that she assumed wasn't directed at her at all she started to walk towards him,

"What happened?" She started to pet her own head as it felt strange. Ganego took a big deep breath, looking at her from the side of his face and started to explain,

"The guy Izuru hit was connected to an amplifier boredom. Since Izuru's power is to make illusions, the amplifier made it possible for Izuru to accidentally 'create' a new plain." Sarah must have been giving him a bizarred look because he continued, "Usually in the new plains its just like an alternative universe and the only way to get out of here is to wake Izuru up."

"You've been through this before?" She asked, tilting her head as she slowly processed the fact that they may in fact me in a whole different universe then what she was used to.

"Yeah, last time I had D.J.-san though." It was then Sarah took a focused look at Ganego and blinked harshly, rubbing her eyes for a moment.

"Shizuma-kun! Your tattoo is gone!" She pointed out and she then felt a strange coldness sweep her, "And...your...eyes?" They weren't red. They were blue, and it was strange. Ganego blinked once then turned away, but Sarah saw his eyes soften and a frown overcome his face as he did that,

"Ah, so he's in this one too."

'...What...? That was such a sad look...' However before she could think anymore on the subject Ganego placed his hand on his chin, grunting in displeasure,

"This is going to be troublesome. You and I were the only other ones present when this happened. Last time D.J. has to magically smack Izuru awake." He explained the past situation slightly, and Sarah just nodded.

"Well we'll just get Eisel-san to wake her up then."

"S'not that easy." He gave a slightly irritable look to her and Sarah gave one right back, "For all we know Haru isn't 'bored' in this plain, and he'll have no reason to believe us. We were there to witness the illusion take place and that's the only reason that we don't believe in this world." Ganego then muttered something about his sensory powers and that he wouldn't be able to find Haruhane anyway.

"So...where are we then." Sarah grunted, slightly unsatisfied by the discussion.

"Well we're still definitely in Matsuhara, though it seems that Haru's mansion was replaced by a factory." Sarah gave a loud sigh in frustration and Ganego jumped at that slightly, "What's wrong?"

"This morning I woke up fighting a dragon, and now I'm supposed to believe we traveled to an alternative universe?"

"Well it's just an illusion, not an actual-" Ganego tried quickly to amend her sentence, make her feel comfortable but there was a loud noise in the background, a voice that sounded similar to his own,

"GO!" Time seemed to freeze for a second and Sarah blinked as Ganego turned to face the voice.

"Shin...?" Shin? Who was Shin? Sarah finally saw this so called Shin and she gaped. An identical face to Ganego's walked up to them, the only difference was that he had his left ear pierced. "Shin-nii (1)!" Ganego cried out happily. Sarah found herself just staring though, twins! Ganego had a twin!

"Hey, there you are...Oh I see." It was creepy to see the replica of Ganego grin widely and rather lecherously, "Hitting on some fine blonde, huh? Niiiiice." Ganego jumped immediately, a blush filtering all around his face.

"I-I'm not hitting on her!" He explained loudly, and the Shin just chuckled, using his hands to convey some weird motions,

"Uh-huh, sure." Something about this and that in the background of his motions and Ganego shouting at him for embarrassing him. Sarah didn't really pay any attention though, focusing on the other matter at hand.

'Shizuma-kun has a twin...huh...I wonder why I've never seen him before though...' The blonde's thoughts were interrupted though as the twin took her hands and stood dangerously close to her face,

"Hey there pretty thing." Sarah found herself red faced, "Shizuma Shintaro here."

"Shin-nii (1)! Leave Gesell-san alone!" Ganego tried to implore, hissing at his brother.

"Gesell-san huh? Sounds French. Teach me your ways French lady." He spoke smoothly and Sarah had no idea what to do. This was her first time being hit on!

"GET OFF OF HER YOU HORN-DOG!" Ganego persisted in yelling while Sarah couldn't help but think that the twins were completely different.

"Brothers are supposed to share Go." Shintaro teased his twin and Sarah felt a weird sound escape her mouth as he brushed his hand against her cheek, "'Sides, mom's calling for the both of us. You know, the curfew of hell." There seemed to be a startlingly change in Ganego's temper and he stared, blinking slightly.

"M-Mom?" Shintaro quit teasing the young blonde in front of him and took his little brother's hand and started to lead him,

"Yeah, so let's go." He paused for a second then looked back at the girl, "You can come if you want to French lady."

"Don't call her French lady Shin-nii." Ganego tried to force him to quit but his tone wasn't as forceful as it had been earlier. The three traveled down the roads (and Sarah felt embarrassed as she was in her jammies), but they made it to a quaint apartment, though the front door was also a sliding door. Sarah found herself disturbed by the amount of sliding doors she had seen in the house-holds...but wait a minute...why did this place look familiar? Just a bit? Sarah shook her head,

"We're home! And we have a guest!" Shintaro yelled out to an unknown person in the home as Ganego and Sarah both hurried in taking off their shoes and closing the sliding door in peace.

"A guest?" A woman's voice answered the yell back, "Shintaro, I swear this better not be another loose girl!"

"She ain't loose! She's French!" Shintaro replied quickly back to the woman's voice and Sarah found herself a little bit more then irritated. Perhaps she should hit Shintaro...and she wasn't loose! Who the hell was that woman to assume such a thing!

"Honestly Shintaro," The woman's voice sounded a little closer, "Did you at least buy some new condoms?" AHHHHHH.

"Heey, this girl's too classy to just do that kind of stuff." Shintaro moved out of sight and Ganego sighed,

"Shin-nii, please stop making Gesell-san uncomfortable."

"Oh? Ganego? She's your guest? Then I guess it's safe for me to come out and greet them." The woman in the background seemed to finish doing something and there was a light tapping of light footsteps on the floor. Sarah stared as Ganego stared intently on the opening where she could only come from and Sarah gaped even more as the woman finally came out. She was small, and it was bluntly obvious that she was related to the twins. The twins looked a lot like her, blue eyes and really black hair. She couldn't help but stare as the woman walked to her and smiled, "I'm Shizuma Asuna."

"Gesell Sarah, ma'am!" She bowed respectfully, blushing lightly and happily. Though he wondered why this was her first time seeing the woman. If she was Ganego's mother, shouldn't she been around a lot more? Sarah jumped though as Ganego fell to the ground and wrapped his arms around his mother's waist, burying his face in her back. Asuna blinked,

"Is something wrong Go-chan?" There was a loud laugh for a moment,

"No, I just wanted to say hi mom." Ganego laughed again, burying his face even further into the woman's back. Asuna looked at Sarah and Sarah looked back at her, they both simultaneously shrugged, but Sarah found herself staring at Ganego closely.

"Oh, well that's okay then. Mommy's always happy to hear that." The woman smiled and Sarah just kept staring. "Will you be staying?" Asuna asked though, turning to her politely and Sarah hesitated for a moment.

"Oh...yes...please." 'Shizuma-kun...' Ganego let go of his mother and she walked off to probably prepare another place setting for dinner, 'Is the reason I've never seen them...or the reason you seem happier...and the reason you look different here...is it because they're dead in real life now?' Sarah felt herself jump as a mental image of her father lying on a bed with a breather over his mouth came to her, 'And does that mean there are others alive when they're supposed to be dead?' Sarah hesitantly started to back up as Ganego had followed after his mother. "Um...you know, never mind. I have to check something out, see you later Shizuma-kun." Sarah immediately ran out of the house and Ganego heard her a little too late,

"Huh? Gesell-san?" Sarah found herself wondering around the streets of Matsuhara with a rather thoughtful look on her face. She hoped she didn't make things awkward for Ganego, and she should leave him alone to spend time with his dead mother. Sarah found herself sighing,

'I'll try and find Izuru-nee, and think up a way to wake her up.' Her thoughts finished and she jumped, looking behind her as a car skidded shut and yelled to her,

"There you are!" She stared. That was the best way to describe what she did, she just...stared. From the drivers seat (of an American car!?) came out one Haruhane Eisel, except...he...didn't have his glasses on! Haruhane crept up to her and Sarah found herself frozen within the man's arms. "I was worried about you." He commented easily and Sarah found a blush crossing her face, "Now where have you been you silly girl?" He teased. AHHHHH! Sarah accidentally pushed Haruhane away after he said that, it was too much for her! Haruhane with emotion in his voice and he liked her? AHHHHH! This definitely was an alternative world! "Sarah-chan, what's wrong?" He asked, visibly concerned and Sarah found herself jumping slightly on how cute he looked and acted.

"N-Nothing Eisel-san!" She lied easily, 'I just wasn't expecting to be embraced by you...and you're too handsome! No wonder why you have glasses on all the time back home!'

"Eisel? What's with the sudden change Sarah-chan?" They were staring eye-to-eye, brown vs. blue, "Aren't I your precious, Ha-ru-chan?" He accented his name as he spoke to her. Seeing her stunned look though, Haruhane just jolted himself up and guided her to his car, "Come on, let's get going home either way."

"O-Okay." He guided her to the passenger's seat gently and went to the driver's seat quickly and started to drive off.

"WAIT! Gesell-san!" Ganego yelled after the departing car, his twin brother behind him.

"Man, what's with you? Did you forget to get her number or something?" Shintaro teased his little brother and Ganego just stared as the car took off. "Honestly, you're hopeless without me, aren't you?" The twin started moving off back so they could both go back into the house, while Shintaro just laughed all the way.

'Oh crap.'

'I don't think I'll ever get used to this kind of stuff...I mean...an alternative universe?' Sarah thought, crossing her hands together underneath the seat beat tightly, 'Sounds like a bad Sci-fi...and here...Eisel-san...and I...' She glanced over to Haruhane, blushing until she was sure she was red all around, 'Have a relationship!' An image of Haruhane in a tuxedo with a rose in hand came to mind. Sarah waved the image away mentally, 'What am I complaining about though? I mean it's like in this universe everything's better...and...Eisel-san likes me!'

"You're oddly energetic tonight." Haruhane glanced over to the blonde real quick before going back to the road as they drove near a close car.

"R-Really? S-Sorry!" Haruhane laughed.

"No, I like it. It makes me think you're more beautiful than usual!"

'I may never want to leave!' Stars and hearts appeared all around the girl cheerfully at the compliment. How awesome!

"We're home!" Haruhane called out as they entered through the apartment door. This was definitely different then what Sarah was used to, she placed off her shoes as was custom and Sarah blinked once when a female voice answered back,

"Welcome home!" She looked up from focusing on her shoes and jumped as she saw a certain Kimi walk across the kitchen floor with a steaming pot in her hand.

'That was Kimi-san!" She remembered the young lady from when they had encountered the time bored. W-what was she doing here!?

"Mom's prettier than usual, isn't she?"

... 'Mom!?' Her mind shrieked at her. It was like time went by slowly, with a loud tick, tock, tick, tock. 'The mysteries of DNA!' The mental image of this sweet looking girl...who was actually a women with the older looking man that was known as Haruhane's father. And the fact that they combined together to make it become...Haruhane? Well, Sarah now knew for sure that Haruhane didn't look like either of them!

"Mom, did you take your medicine today?" Haruhane walked into the kitchen area, lecturing his sweet looking mother.

"Of course, of course." The mother replied simply. The both of them started to continue a conversation.

'But...if Kimi-san is Eisel-san's mother...then why was she in the second mansion? Is...is it because...' Sarah shook her head rapidly, 'No, I shouldn't be assuming things.'/

"Mom's so silly, isn't she?" Haruhane looked over to Sarah as the woman went back to cooking. Sarah felt quite a bit of guilt looking into the young man's face, "I think she made Udon (2) tonight! So that's good at least!"

'When I get back...I'm going to have to ask him...because he looks so happy here...but please don't let it be what I think it is.' The phone started to ring and from the kitchen Kimi leaned out and looked over to the blonde,

"Sarah-chan, could you get that? It's probably for you anyway." The blonde nodded and stared at the phone a little uneasily before picking it up and a loud voice yelled in her ear.

"Mochi mochi (3)! Ane-san (4)!"

'Mochi?' Sarah imagined the treat while staring down at the telephone receiver blankly. In the background there was a chuckle from a man and he commented,

"You goof, it's moshi moshi (5), and the one answering the phone uses that. Though you got ane-san right at least." The man's voice chuckled and Sarah imagined the man brushing the eager boy's hair.

"Sensei! Abe!" Sarah jumped in eagerness and happiness after it feeling like it had been months. Though that was odd, she could have sworn there was no way for her family to call her in Japan. "How are you two?" She asked cheerfully.

"We're good." Abraham replied back quickly, happy to hear his sister's voice. "Mom got a new job at a Cooperation of some kind, oh and guess what! I passed my math exam! Teacher was really proud of me!" Abraham talked in a very fast manner that made the blonde smile.

"Good job Abe! Hey, can I talk to dad for a sec or so?" She asked him politely. She could see his face in her mind as he pouted through the telephone and rolled his eyes,

"Yeah, I guess." The phone was handed over to her stepfather and she could hear Abe muttering something about troublesome sisters.

"Hey Sarah." Her stepfather called to her, a grin on his face, "How goes it in Japan? Having-" Before he could continue speaking, Sarah quietly interrupted him.

"I found a truth." She didn't know what made her say it...but...she hadn't heard his voice in so long, and it felt good to hear from him again. It really did.

"Something wrong dad?" Abraham asked from his seat and the blonde narrowed her eyes as the speech was a little garbled,

"Ahaha, no. I just need to talk to your sister alone. I'll give it back to you when I'm done, okay?" After a few foot-steps, Sarah's step-father reached the living room, which was a nice quaint quiet looking place with photographs all over the place, most of them taken by him.

"Sensei?" The man rolled his eyes, grateful that his stepdaughter couldn't see the action. No matter how old the girl had gotten, he was sure that he would always mostly be sensei to her.

"Yeah, I'm still here. Tell me more." Arashi smiled in the receiver, looking at a photo that hadn't been taken of him, of his marriage to Sarah's mother and in the background was their wedding cake the bottom half of it eaten by a six-year-old Sarah. Sarah's mother looked so happy in the picture and he looked like a kid next to her.

"Well..." She hesitated through the line and Arashi just rolled his eyes again, but kept fairly serious. After all, a truth? "I found a scary truth sensei. Do you really think it's possible for people to lose their entire meaning to live?"

"Of course it is." He sadly spoke, brushing back his dyed hair, "Those who give up...die." The girl laughed a little sadly through the line.

"I was afraid of that. It's not possible to resurrect the dead after all."

"What's this about?"

"The truth I found...These people...they've died inside...and...it's frightening because their bodies keep moving just because of a contract." Oh, now she knew why she was telling him all of this. If they woke up from this fake universe, there was no way he would remember.

"Contract?" She avoided him purposely by speaking in a different way,

"It's nothing." She lied and she had a feeling he sensed her lie easily, "I've just been feeling lost."

"Lost?" He asked as a concerned parent and she couldn't help but smile.

"Sensei, how hard was it to bring happiness to mom?" She could sense his underlying confusion with her random topics and how she seemed to change her mind about what she was talking about quickly. He hesitated for a moment, before answering the girl honestly,

"Pretty hard." His eyes softened at the thought, remembering how close the woman had been to completely breaking down because of her husband's death and the horrible rumors that had came around them. The man may had died from cancer, but that didn't stop being people from being cruel to him... "She was really sad. She was close to giving up." He paused again, not particularly liking to remember those times, "I'm really glad you helped me, otherwise I'm sure she would have lost herself completely." He felt no qualm telling the daughter of his most beloved the truth. He knew the girl was the type who needed to hear things, because it brought her closer to the truth.

"Hah...oh man..." Her voice echoed from the receiver, a tone of loneliness and despair deep within it.

"What's wrong?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

"The truth is real overwhelming, isn't it sensei?" He glanced over at one of his pictures absentmindly (this particularly one was on a Halloween night when Abraham was still only three and Sarah ten and she was a cat while Abraham was a giant pumpkin) as he waited for her to continue, "It's not the truth that my dad wants me to find-"

'So she still remembers.' He thought sadly,

"But it's still a truth. I hope to find a way to help them." She whispered to him as though nobody else should hear.

"Them?" He blinked, getting more confused then he really would have cared for. She ignored his question, surprisingly,

"I have to find out...why they died." The passion in her voice made him blink, and he couldn't help it as a smile overcame his face.

"You've found friends it sounds like." The girl had been alone for as long as he knew, she never seemed bothered by it but that was probably because she didn't know any better.

"Friends?" The question came to him bluntly, but he just kept smiling.

"You may be closer to the truth then you think." He slowly replied, giving his cryptic reply before walking back into the kitchen and handing it to his son (only giving Sarah a few words of warning) and Sarah screamed out,

"WAIT! SENSEI!"

"Dad said he had to go shopping, something wrong sis?" Abraham's voice filtered through the connection and Sarah growled to herself.

'Damn him!' "No, nothing's wrong." She gave the curt reply.

"You've been okay though, right? I've been worrying about you." Sarah brightened up though, hearing her little brother's voice.

'I have the best little brother in the world!' She thought to herself, "I've been good, thanks Abe." There was a sigh in the background for a moment,

"I miss you sis."

"I miss you too Abe." Sarah replied back earnestly, after all, everything had been so nerve-wracking here in Japan, it would be nice to be back home eventually.

"Alright, I'll call you later then." He hung up on her and Sarah found herself frowning.

"That was weird." She placed the phone back up on it's hanging mount and tilted her head in deep thought, not noticing Haruhane until he wrapped his arms around her waist. "AHHHH!" She screamed, a blush overcoming her face as she struggled momentarily.

"Sarah-chan?" He asked, obviously confused on her actions. She pushed him lightly off of him as he hadn't been gripping her hard, and found herselr stuttering,

"Ei...Haru...let's go eat Udon!" She suggested, running to the obvious area where the smell of food was coming from. Haruhane on the other hand, had been assuming that the so-called changes in Sarah's behavior was because she wanted to do a bit of 'some of this and that' like any normal male. As Sarah sat down at the table, she heard a voice from a nice quaint television set.

"Good evening watchers!" The announcer cheerfully yelled, "Today we've managed to get an interview with the famous Tanaka InCo-san! She flew in all the way from Matsuhara! Please give her a warm welcome!"

'Tanaka InCo? That sounds familiar...'

"Mom, do you really need to watch that during dinnertime?" Haruhane asked with a somewhat disapproving tone in his voice, muttering something about 'Housewives and their stupid shows'.

"Oh hush Haru," She didn't even turn to look at him, "I've been waiting for this for forever, I've always wanted to know what Ms. Tanaka InCo looks like!"

"Good evening." Sarah jumped from her seat to look behind the couch directly to the television as Izuru Tanaka came out to the platform where the host was. She flicked her hair back and Sarah found her mouth gapping.

'That's!'

"She's very beautiful." Kimi spoke, a delightful blush on her face, "She looks so young too!" Sarah couldn't help but think a quick 'Looks who's talking' but her attention was quickly diverted back to the television set even when Haru's voice filtered in the room.

"What's so great about a fashion designer anyway?" Kimi seemed to take great offense to this comment and roughly turned her head so much it looked like it almost went 180 degrees.

"Haru, you're wearing something she made right now, and half of the stuff you have in your closet was made by her, so hush." Her head turned back to the television not spotting Haruhane's obvious twitch.

"Tanaka-san," The host started from the screen, "Is that a new design?" Sarah looked as they out focused the camera to take a full body of what Izuru was wearing, and it looks like some kind of weird pirate suit.

"It is, I hope to release a set this spring, it's a 'fantasy' set." Izuru replied, a smile on her face. Okay, this was getting too much for her.

'Didn't Shizuma-kun say something about her being asleep though? What in the world is going on here!?' The girl gave herself a loud sigh, 'Ah...Izu-neechan looks so happy...' When the program finished, the family sat at the table, eating Udon (and Haru's father joined in later) and Sarah dismissed herself to her room to get rest. Lying in that futon though just made her think even more than she wanted too. 'All of this is so confusing...I'm not even sure if I want to leave now.'

Who in the right mind would want to? 'Shizuma-kun's happy for some reason, Eisel-san isn't bored, and Izu-nee...she looks so happy and at peace...' What was really wrong with this world? 'Is this really just an illusion though?' She turned and twisted in the futon before slowly falling asleep with the sad thought of waking up from this beautiful place.

"Good morning French Lady!" Shintaro Shizuma had broke her dull stare at the ground, with his very bad imitation of English. Sarah couldn't help but stare and Ganego muttered something about how embarrassing his brother was, but Sarah just by stepped the twin and momentarily attacked him with her evil History Book, successfully pushing him far away,

"Shizuma-kun, I need to talk to you in private." Ganego laughed a bit nervously but agreed and they went to the front gates where no one would really pay them any mind. Sarah relayed with her sighting of Izuru last night and Ganego look completely confused. In a sincere expression he spoke,

"I see...well that is definitely different." Sarah watched as his gaze went to the sky for a moment and she hesitated for a moment.

"Shizuma-kun..." He looked at her with full attentiveness, "Is this right to do?" She asked in pure honesty and he blinked in response. "I mean, do we really want to leave this place? Is it right to leave a place where everyone's happy?" She glanced away, not able to see Ganego's face grow serious. He turned away, also not wanting to see her face,

"Of course." She jumped, "What's the point of living that life if we don't finish it?" His voice hitched, though not through puberty as one would expect.

"But aren't you happy too?" The blonde immediately questioned, confused.

"Maybe." His voice betrayed no yes or no in its tone, "But I want to become happy in the real world." He brushed at his forehead, stopping to scratch the area where his tattoo would normally be. "I want to make happiness by my own hands. I want to see if I can make my dreams come true through my work," His hands were gesturing all around, especially towards the sky, "I don't want to think that the life I've been living through until now has all been fake." He finished momentarily, turning back around with a smooth smile. "Gesell-san, it's important. Not just to me, but I know that Haru and Izu-chan wouldn't want this world."

She stood still, staring at his smile and couldn't help but think how...adult...the boy seemed. It was weird, and her heart thumped at the last words erupting from his lips, "There's no use in relying on something fake." She wanted to speak, but her throat froze on her for some reason, but that was interrupted as a loud chime rode across the winds.

"Isn't that your school bell?" She asked honestly, as it was the most natural thing to say.

"ACK!" Ganego rapidly turned around to see that a school in the place he had already gotten used to be a construction spot, "I forgot it hadn't been knocked down here!" Ganego started to run off, waving off to Sarah for a moment, "Gotta go! See you after school!" He yelled, then took off at a speed that Sarah recognized as she was always the slowest in races. She really couldn't help but think though,

'Shizuma...no...I mean Ganego...is really...something...' Her own bell was getting ready to ring, she knew, so she made her way to the classroom, blinking as Satoshi addressed her as he usually did.

"Gesell-san."

"...Oh...Tonomi-san..." The blonde was wary, after all, was the black-haired boy an ass here too? Said teenage boy gave a sign then gave Sarah a bright smile, but the girl couldn't help but think that the smile was creepy.

"Good morning!" She sat down though, still wary and careful, "Did you have a good Sunday?" Hmm...If they were going to get back to normal, she could ask anything or do anything she wanted to do and there wouldn't be any consequences, right? So she ignored the question and frowned,

"Tonomi-san, can I ask you a question?" He blinked, but then nodded. "If you had a life where everything was against you and then it changed as though those things never happened, would you want to back to the bad life? If life was best for everyone in this new life, could you choose to go back to the bad place?" The blonde asked honestly, a frown overcoming her entire face as she thought more of the subject. True, Ganego said that they wouldn't be happy in this world, but how could Ganego say that when they were already ignorant and happy in this place? "Is it really a big deal to live a life that you lived through so many bad things? Wouldn't it just be best to live the better life for everyone?" Before she could continue more on her non-focused rant, Satoshi stopped her with a powerful,

"No." She glanced at him, "A better life? That's stupid! There's no such thing. You may as well go back to what you know, because you know at least that isn't a fairy tale."

"Tonomi-san..." She stared blankly, not knowing what exactly what to reply back to that.

"It's a nice thought, but it's stupid." He scorned her easily enough, "There's always going to be someone who's having a bad life, so just go back okay? You don't know how good your life will get until you live the bad life, got it?"

"...Yeah...thanks..." She hid her head bashfully, blushing slightly in shame. 'Tonomi-san is something too I guess...' The day traveled by and soon Sarah found herself wondering outside of the school with a drained face, thinking that her History class seemed worse then usual. Unusually Ganego stood outside the gates with a cheerful smile upon his face, "...You don't look any worse for the wear..." She commented in a slightly raspy voice.

"We just reviewed over xs and ys in math, so I'm not too worried." He replied back in a calm voice.

"...Why aren't you worried? You're really bad at math."

"Because I know it's all fake! I'm not going to study in this fake world!" His expression seemed extremely happy and peaceful, though Sarah couldn't help but think,

'But you're studying the same thing in real life.' The two gave a sigh then vanished into bathrooms to change into after school clothes that they had packed with them, "So...how are we going to meet up with Izuru-nee and 'wake' her up?" Ganego gave a strange expression,

"Well...I found something disturbing about my big brother last night."

'You mean besides him being a pervert?' "Disturbing?" She asked though, letting her curiosity show. Out of nowhere Shintaro popped up and gave a strange looking hug to his brother with a sincere grin on his face.

"Go, never before as our entire life of being twins...have I ever felt so close to you..."

"Then take a few steps back nii-san." Ganego seemed to shudder visibly and Sarah looked away, feeling uncomfortable.

'Why does this look so wrong? Is fashion really so important in Japan?'

"So I've never been happier! You're a Tanaka fan! I wish you would have told me sooner Go!" The twin finally backed off and gave an honest smile, "So, are you ready to head out?" The teen then pulled something from his coat, it looked like a badge, "I have my private backstage pass to Tanaka-sama's 'Cosplay (6) Showing'."

"Cosplay showing?"

"French lady!" Sarah just glared as Shintaro gave her that nickname. "Tanaka-sama is the best! She'll gladly go over people's cosplay materials and make suggestions to make them even better! With the money she makes from her cosplay shows she donates to charities!"

'How can he talk so fast?' The blonde blinked in confusion but registered the material she had been told when the twin backed off of her and started leading the way for the trio. "He's just in his own world, isn't he?"

Yeah, but it's convenient." They continued walking, trailing behind the cheerful twin up ahead of them. As Sarah was never one for silence she spoke,

"Go, are you two fraternal or identical?" Ganego seemed to jump at her voice, and he stared at her with wide-eyes, but then a blush overcame his face and he smiled.

"We're one egg...Sarah-chan..." He tested and seemed to cheer up immensely as Sarah made no reaction to the name.

"Why haven't I seen him before?" His happiness stopped and paused, but he nodded, starting to trail a little bit behind.

"Shin-nii...he lives somewhere else...So you can't really see him..."

"So does that mean he's more grown-up in our reality?"

"...Sure..."

"What about your other brother?" Sarah gave a rapid giggle from her imagination of the Japanese military man, "you know, the one who gave you the tattoo?"

"Shin-nii is my only brother, he's my older twin brother." Confusion wrote itself on the blonde's face as she stopped to look at Ganego's face but sadly the teen kept walking forward,

"Huh?"

"I'd rather not talk about it right now Sarah-chan..." The boy finished the conversation and he turned into a small building that Sarah had never seen before.

"I'm here to meet Tanaka-sama!" Shintaro spoke, bringing out his badge with pride in his voice. The secretary at the desk nodded,

"Are you here for the Cosplay Showing too?" The boy nodded cheerfully, and then there was a little 'beep' and Shintaro bolted into the room. Ganego gave a loud sigh, the two followed after the happy teen,

"We're with him," Ganego simply offered and they entered the small room. There was just a little couch with a bigger table that Izuru was working at, multi-tasking with writing with her left hand and typing at her computer without really paying attention to what she had been typing.

"Shizuma-san," She spoke, without really paying attention but she gave a quick and eager nod to the trio, "pleas excuse me. I have to build up some of the orders and get them shipped, but please go ahead and sit for awhile." Shintaro did just that and he jumped to the couch with a cheerful look upon his face. Ganego followed after and Sarah just stared at the woman whom she considered as a sister.

'Izuru-nee-chan...She looks really happy...' The girl thought, guilt starting to build up in the back of her mind. How were they going to 'wake' her up, and why would they really want to?

"Okay!" The brunette pushed back her chair and grinned at her guests, "I've got that part finished, so how can I help-" Her eyes filtered towards Sarah and she seemed to jump. The woman made a grasp at her heart for a moment, and they grew watery as though she was experiencing deep pain. The woman then looked up and gazed deeply into the copy of blue eyes ahead of her, "Who are you?"

"Me?" The girl pointed at herself then continued softly, "I'm Gesell Sarah."

"...Have I met you somewhere before?" The woman's eyes became a sharp glare and the two who knew this reality wasn't real jumped in surprise, but Ganego stood up and held Sarah back,

"Tanaka-sama, you seem pale, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, now please answer the question Gesell-san."

"I-"

"Excuse us Tanaka-sama." Ganego took Sarah's hand and bolted. Sarah yelped,

"Wait! Go! What are you doing!?"

"W-WAIT!" Izuru yelled after them, as they continued running. As soon as the two were outside, Sarah demanded,

"Why are we running away?"

"I recognized the look on Izu-chan's face, that's why! I told you before that bored have certain things that remind them of the past and they'll do anything to stop it, right? There's no way we can fight Izuru!" The two continued moving but Izuru had made it outside,

"Get back here!" The woman demanded and Sarah was about to ask Ganego what they should do when she noticed that the black-haired teen had up and disappeared entirely.

"GO! I CAN'T RUN AS FAST AS YOU! DAMN YOU!" The girl yelled, continuing to run but the woman behind her was steadily catching up. The blonde wasn't used to running at the speed she was at as she feared for her life, so it wasn't much of a surprise when her foot caught on itself and she started to trip backwards. At the momentum, before she could land on the ground, Izuru had dived and managed to grab her by the armpits. Sarah's vision was blocked by a different vision though, seeing Izuru in a different light then what she saw in front of her. 'Was that Izuru-nee? She looked really hurt!'

"Man! Why were you running away? That kinda ticks me off!" The brunette glared down at the girl she had just saved with disappointment and flinched when the girl just meekly replied 'Izuru-nee'. "Come on now! Tell me who the Hell you are!" The blonde frowned and an overwhelming bit of emotions surrounded her. Should she? She...had to right? If...if that vision she saw was real...then Izuru could die! The one she knew, not this fake one that had happiness...

"Wake up Izuru-nee-chan." The girl's vision turned entirely black, as though the entire world faded and was sucked into the darkness. 'Did it work?' She thought she felt her eyes opening, but it was too dizzy and dreary to actually be able to tell. She saw a blur of short brown, and assumed it was Haruhane as the blur moved quickly and mashed two other large blurs together. 'I...feel like I'm in a lot of pain...' The girl tried to move her head, only for it to hurt a lot more, but in return her vision cleared enough to see she was in Ganego's lap, and the boy had his red eyes and twisted tattoo again. 'So we made it back...I...did the right thing...right?'

"Gesell." A certain familiar monotone sounding like voice woke her up. The girl leaned forward in a drastic movement and glanced around in a tired motion.

"I-Izuru-nee! What happened?"

"You've been asleep for the past two days, nothing eventful has happened." The woman spoke, completely avoiding the girl's first question and going straight to what would be the next.

"Oh that's...WHAT!? TWO WHOLE DAYS!?" The blonde jumped in alarm.

"You were injured in the battle two days ago." The woman bluntly spoke, as though it wasn't alarming to said foreign girl.

"I-I did?"

"Yes, I'm very sorry." Even though the woman's tone blatantly spoke to her in volumes to say that she wasn't really, Sarah accepted the apology in her head.

"It's not your fault Izuru-nee!" The blonde then found her voice pausing, a frown came to her. "D...Do you remember anything from the illusion world?"

"...A little bit." The woman admitted. The blonde on the bed looked at her sadly,

"I'm sorry Izuru-nee." She looked over in a surprised looking emotion,

"Why?"

"B-Because...you were so much happier in the other world. I-I didn't ask if you wanted to stay or not."

"It's fine." The brunette answered plainly, and Sarah looked at said brunette. "Because...the part that I do remember...I was reminded of my life here when I met you...I remember it here," she placed her hand on her heart, looking down at her hand with slight concern, "for some reason...." The woman then looked straight into Sarah's eyes firmly, "I...I don't ever want to live in a place where I can't be...your friend because it hurts me..."

"I-is it really?" She found her eyes tearing up rapidly, "Is it really okay? I-I don't have the right to decide it really was okay...I-I mean, a-am I really that important Izuru-nee?" The blonde begged, crying harder and trying to wipe away the tears coming from her eyes. The woman in front of her seemed confused, and she couldn't do anything but stare.

Chapter VIII.

The Beginning of the End of my Life
Part II.
Izuru's Story

"The mistakes are all waiting to be made."
- Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower

When it had happened...I was only sixteen. I didn't want to believe it! I couldn't! T-There's no way...I was being buried in chaos and darkness...So why was it so damn bright that day?

"Izuru!" The brunette blinked as the warning yelled out and yelped when a baseball hit her on the forehead, bouncing away as it hit. "What's a famous gal like you hanging around the baseball field?" Ran up a child-hood friend by the name of Minato Saki. His long hair was tied up and in the baseball cap, while wearing the uniform. The girl rubbed her head then smiled over to the boy,

"I'll answer your question if you answer why Captain of the baseball team still hasn't cut his hair as requested." The girl giggled.

"Ah...ehehe..." The boy just rubbed the back of his, laughing awkwardly, not wanting to answer that question. "But...let me guess, it has something to do with Toru, right?"

"Yeah," The freshman walked over to the fallen ball and picked it up, handing it to her friend, "He said tonight's really important."

"I-Important?" Minato's face froze and a shiver went up his spine just from the teen's words.

"Yeah, he said he has plans." The girl smiled brightly and honestly. Minato took one long look at his child-hood friend in her school sailor uniform and then looked away.

"O...Izuru, I-"

"Hey there! Izu-chan!" Minato froze with a red fury as his cousin walked up. They were practically identical, despite being just cousins, which was the main reason why Minato had kept his hair grown out. He hated his cousin...

"Toru-kun!" Especially since she loved him too obviously.

"Taeki."

"Saki." The cousins stared at each other harshly, knowing each others intentions clearly.

"Toru-kun," Izuru carried on though, ignorant to the boys' anger, "are you ready for whatever we're going to do?"

"Yeah, Saki, what are you doing with Izu-chan?"

"Nothing, Taeki."

"I'll never understand you two." Izuru laughed, "You're both cousins that grew up together. Yet ever since the beginning of the term, you both call each other by your last names." Minato took his cap off bashfully,

"T-That's because..."

"No reason!" Toru interrupted, pushing Izuru off, "Now come on Sweetie, let's get started on our important event (1)!" Minato stared after as Izuru bid him good-bye, letting herself be dragged off by her boyfriend. He frowned deeply and looked off to the side, remembering the conversation he had with his cousin in Middle school, and the fact he had found out that his cousin had...had been...

"You bastard! All of those girls!? What were you thinking!?" The angry boy lifted his cousin high into the air by the collar, "You better not do all of that shit on Izuru!"

"Jealous?" Came the snide reply.

"I..."

"Hah! You're so petty and obvious cousin!" The dark-haired boy smirked, "You should have just taken her then, while you still could have. It'll be your fault when I do what I do." Minato growled to himself and ran back to the field, trying to block out the old conversation.

"Izu-chan, be safe, okay?" Izuru's mother, a little older looking and quite round with a pregnant glow, hugged her daughter with emotional turmoil in her voice.

"I will, I will, I have Mr. Bodyguard here to take care of me. I also have Toru-kun, so I'll be fine." The girl hugged her mother back honestly with a happy tone. In the background was a dark-haired man with thick sunglasses on his face, and he rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that he wasn't a bodyguard but Izuru's manager.

"We'll only be in Kyoto for a few days." Izuru's father, a dark-haired man with the look of a young professional stated, his blunt tone slightly off, "We'll be there until your mother has your sister, are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Of course tou-san (2), I'll be fine." The designer reassured her no-nonsense father. From the airport the two parents started to make their way to pass through the checking station,

"Don't do anything I wouldn't Izu...Seriously, don't." Her father stated as a matter of fact and the teen nodded, while her mother held her stomach up just a little bit, wobbling hesitantly,

"Hehehe, you're so funny Sumonaro." The man just smiled and shook his head as they took off, Izuru waving in a maniac way while her manager aptly waved once before continuing on his cell-phone and Toru just watched his girlfriend continue to be childish.

'When they come back I'll have a baby sister! I can't wait!' Toru glided the teen and they started on their date. The night passed by abnormally quickly, and all Izuru could feel was sluggish and slow. Childish romantic words were passed through the two, and though Izuru couldn't exactly remember all of it, she was sure she lost her virginity that night. When she woke up from that night, she was sure she was in Toru's bedroom with the boy gone and her head was killing her. Struggling, she managed to make it to school, her eyes moving constantly because the light hurt.

"Izu-chan!" His voice penetrated her head like a thousand needles, but she ignored the pain and looked over at the boy.

"Good morning Minato-kun."

"..." The boy took a few deep breaths after having to run up to the brunette, "Izuru...how...how did it go last night?" He was nervous, his voice shuddered.

"Good!...I think." The girl answers honestly, "I can't remember half of the night." The look on Minato's face threw Izuru off for a moment, but she ignored it because her head pulsed violently.

"I...I see..." She ignored him as the bell rang loud and true and struggled to be in the classroom on time, as a rough habit she fingered her pearl necklace, remembering faintly that she wasn't supposed to have it on.

"Give me your pearls." Toru's voice rang true and Izuru blinked, trying to remember last night a bit more clearly but nothing came.

"Hm? Why? Oh I get it! You'll keep it from the teacher right?" It was nice to have such a caring boyfriend.

"Wrong." It was strange, but Izuru could feel something dark within the boy's sentence. "Do you remember anything of last night?" His question hissed through the air in a quiet whisper. The brunette frowned, rubbing her birthmark unconsciously and blushed,

"N-No..."

"Well you see...last night...I video-taped it all." He whispered in her ear. Everything grew dark. "Now I'm just blackmailing you, famous fashion Tanaka InCo-sama." Everything grew cold.

"W-what?"

"Did you honestly think that I was in love with you?" His tone completely mocking and arrogant. "I guess that would explain why you allowed me to do so many things to you then." He laughed, it was a dark and sinister and greedy laugh. Izuru found her body shaking, shocked that these were the words that were piercing through her head so clearly. T...there was no way...

"What are you talking about Toru-kun?"

"Jesus, you're stupid. Give me your pearls or I'll just sell the video off."

I couldn't believe it. Toru...the guy who I had thought had a crush on me since elementary. The man who I thought I'd be able to love...for the rest of my life...
Betrayed me.

'What am I going to do? There's no doubt he'll just keep using me until I'm broke...' Izuru opened the apartment door and dropped her case that held her invaluable homework and other miscellaneous items that had little significance. She stared at her hand, watching it tremble with a saddened force. A tear flew down and hit her quiet hand, and the only thing to break her from her stupor was the obnoxious ring of the telephone. Carefully the girl picked it up, "Hello?"

"IZURU!? WHY AREN'T YOU HERE!? Did you forget about the signing!?"

"Sorry Manager-san, I did." Izuru rubbed the back of her head, laughing to herself that she had been worrying for nothing.

"Likely story, what did you do? The police are here for you!"

"What? The police?" A combination between a cold fury and a battling depression sunk through her body. "They're not mentioning anything about porn are they!?" Though Izuru didn't know the volume of her voice, the manager had to keep the phone away as the voice echoed through the chambers, "I'll be there in a few minutes!" She promised, hanging up the phone and started to bolt to where the signing was supposed to take place. 'Damn you Taeki!' She angrily thought of her previous boyfriend, 'You can blackmail me all you want, but I won't let you ruin my dream!' The girl started running across the crosswalk and roughly bumped into another body. "Sorry!" She yelled back, not having enough time to see if they fell or not and if they needed any help. It would later be determined that the man she bumped into was rather in fact the shinigami (3), Azreal, and that bumping had been a bump with destiny.

'That girl was a virtue...but she's about to find out an unfortunate truth...' Azreal finished crossing and jumped in surprise as he heard a cloudless voice enter his head and instantly remind him of the deal he had made with God with a certain d'jinn.

"Manager-san! Dont believe them! I wasn't involved in any porno! It's just a chick who looks like me!" She screamed out, panting roughly and only stopping when she made it in front of her manager. The man looked shocked and the policeman behind her looked extremely concerned.

"Tanaka-san...perhaps...we need to talk about this somewhere else?" He cast an anxious eye over to the crowd of fans.

"I'm telling you that I wasn't in any porno! Taeki's lying to you!" She yelled earnestly, a blush overcoming her face.

"Izuru...this really is something we need to talk about somewhere else..." A hand pat itself on Izuru's head and the girl blinked, jumping out of her embarrassment.

"Uncle?" A tall Japanese man with brown hair, and brown eyes which were always circled with tired marks. "What are you doing here? You're with the Narc (4) Division, not-"

"Izuru." Her uncle's serious face cut her off entirely. The girl just stared, feeling the weight of what had happened today finally make her shoulders give out.

Her parents were murdered that day.

Murdered by a bastard who was robbing a bank.

Why were her parents in the bank? Why...why were they blown? Why...why couldn't her sister be saved? Why!? WHY!?

The funeral was held soon after, and she just stared blankly at the graves. Stared blankly at the people who would offer their condolences, and stared at the gossiping people who were talking about her and her sickening video. All she could do was stare, why could she only stare though? What was she doing? Water was leaking, and...it came from her? What was this? Why couldn't she feel herself crying?

"I...I need to get some stuff from home...go on ahead uncle." Even her voice sounded numb, was she really even speaking? 'It needs to stop'. Her apartment was as normal as it could be, without her parents stuff, without her little sister's stuff...The only things that were still left were her things, and everything that was in the kitchen.

A knife seemed smart. Really smart.

Though before she could dig the sharp kitchen knife into her stomach, someone grabbed firmly at her wrist and held her head thickly.

"Savior, that was close!" A strange voice spoke out. It seemed...ethereal, something that didn't seem female or male.

"Good catch Cole." Another voice spoke out, a relieved sigh reaching his tone. Izuru found herself surrounded by a pair of warm arms, but she still didn't feel it. "D.J., don't be shy, come meet the virtue." Her body was being turned for some strange reason, and she found why when she saw a clothes strange figure with a pair of flames peeking from the cloak.

"Yo..." The strange being pulled down what covered his face, and revealed a moon and a black triangle cascading down his eyes, "Wanna sign a contract?"

And that's just how I came to be. That's just simply...me...

"Izu-chan!" Izuru paused in her punching the sandbag and looked over to the voice. "This is Eisel-san's family's workout room, you were pretty spaced out, weren't you? We can't have you breaking their bags now, can we?"

"Gesell." She bluntly spoke, only slight surprise could be read.

"Hm?" The blonde looked over with a bright smile on her face.

"...Never mind..."

"You're so weird Izu-chan." She had noticed, but she never said anything about it, but in the last few days, Sarah had been calling her Izu-chan...not Izu-nee...hm...oh well, it probably wasn't important.

"Where are you going?" The brunette noticed the blonde in her school uniform that had been different than the one she had when she was in middle school. Izuru commented momentarily about it being Sunday.

"I'm going to visit a place I've been meaning to, I just came in to check up on you." The blonde replied back simply enough and started to leave the small gym. As she started to make her way, she couldn't help but think, 'That's right...I forgot why I came here to Japan in the first place...' It would be her first time on the subway, and she was kind of nervous as she stared at the connecting lines but nodded and took a seat at the shockingly empty seats. 'I came to Japan to understand the human persona even more. They developed a technique here that should help. I was distracted...but no more! I can't let the world of boredom distract me or let it affect my future.'

"Gesell-san!" Sarah felt her face-fault in annoyance as she heard the cheerful voice speak to her and start heading her way, and even worse! Sat next to her with no problem at all!

'That voice!'

"Ah, riding the subway, huh? Where you going? And why are you dressed in your uniform?"

"...I needed proof I'm a student and I haven't got an ID yet..." The girl answered Satoshi Tonomi with an irritated face. 'ARGH! So much for not letting anything distract me! I can't help it, Tonomi annoys me!' Her mind screamed at her as the boy sat right next to her, holding on the pole that was attached to the subway.

"Why would you need proof?" He asked curiously, tilting his head in question and she looked down at the bag he placed between them.

"They're only willing to accept students."

"They?" She paused at the question and looked away.

"The Kinamotou Cooperation." Satoshi reacted immediately,

"What things are those bastards willing to teach?" And in a more muttered tone of voice, "and why the hell would you want to learn?"

"...The truth..." There was a hidden still in the air and Sarah sensed the tension so she turned around, forcing a laugh, "I mean a way for me to find out more about what I want to do!" She then went into a rant describing the supposed technology that the Kinamotou residence held. The long ride continued like that with Sarah talking over half of the time when the subway stopped and she got off, not expecting the dark-haired Japanese boy to follow her. However he did and he followed her all the way up to the streets that blazed with people and the huge building known to be the home of the cooperation. She walked on though, thinking that Satoshi lived this way, however he continued to follow her, finally she turned around and pointed, "WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME!?"

"I have nothing better to do...obviously." He replied in a singsong tone.

"What about your groceries?" She pointed at the white bag, "You look like you have some milk in there!" Satoshi seemed to realized her words and looked at his bag with a blank stare. He then walked a few feet away and seemed to speak to a random Japanese man that happened to be walking by and handed him the groceries. Satoshi walked back to Sarah, who just stared in bewilderment and stated with a whisper,

"Help police, someone took my groceries." Sarah shrieked and grabbed his hoodie,

"Don't give your things away and say that!" After a lecture the two finally made it into the building and they stared at the center where there was a great crowd of people gathered together.

"What's with the crowd?"

"Business meeting, maybe?" Sarah offered as they walked against the white tile, their steps muffled by the talk in the air.

"In public?" Satoshi argued back.

"Well whatever," Sarah just shrugged his comment, "I only have to go to the reception desk." They made their way to a desk where there was a man typing rapidly at a computer surrounded by a few policemen that seemed to be on edge. "Hi I-"

"Center platform." The man spoke bluntly.

"But I-"

Center platform."

"Agh!" Sarah turned, grumbling angrily. "We're going to have to wait in this chaos." She bluntly stated, glaring at the crowd.

"And it might just be me, but it looks like they're randomly choosing people too."

"I'm glad I got up early then."

"You!" Sarah blinked as the commanding voice yelled out to her in an English tone and she blinked again when the crowd departed to show a middle-aged man at the center with a pleasant smile upon his face. "You young lady, you want to try this reading technology, don't you?" People complained in the background and the blonde blinked for the third time.

"Huh...uh...yeah!"

"Then come on down Gesell-san and friend." The blonde jumped in excitement and started to bolt to the center.

"You know my name!" She yelled in an awed tone, her eyes sparkling cheerfully.

"I'd rather you not read our minds with that tech, Mr. Employee." Sarah jumped as Satoshi's arms wrapped around waist and his head on the top of hers. Satoshi's tone sounded threatening, but she ignored it and hit him off. The middle-aged man opened his eyes slowly to stare at Satoshi with a timid glare.

'I can't read this kid's mind.' The strange boy rubbed his chin, sore from being hit, 'This kid's mind...it's like it's dead. Everything's blocked off as though it's been cut off from the world...he's probably...'

"So how does this work?" The blonde American had finally made her way to the platform, curious at the object the man was holding out. "I mean, does it really read people's minds? Even the really unstable ones?" Her tone was professionally curious, if he wasn't in such a hurry to get these loaded off into her hands, he probably would have taken some time to get to know the blonde who knew of the missing Kinamotou heir.

"The ones here are actually only emotional readers. But make no mistake, we do have the mind readers here. You want to try these on?" He handed the small case that held contacts and Sarah struggled to put them in, and when they finally managed to make it in her eyes, they turned green in color and a swirl seemed to appear in her eyes. "Now this model is mostly to amplify those who are already empathetic, do you sense anything?"

"I..." The girl stared long and hard around the room. "I sense..." She stopped her sentence again, in complete awe and wonder, "How much are these!" She questioned immediately, feeling annoyance, impatience, boredom, happiness, suspicious, irritation, and so much more!

"Just for today, free."

"Really!?"

"Gesell-san, weren't you here for an education?" Satoshi grabbed the blonde's hand and started to drag her off, glaring at the man.

"Oh that's right! Thank you! Bye!" The blonde let herself be dragged off, and the day passed by in a slow taunting pace until it was nighttime and Satoshi walked by her, walking the girl home. "Hmmm! Today was a good Sunday!" Sarah stretched cheerfully.

"Are you going to keep wearing those things?" He pointed at the girl's now green eyes.

"Uh-huh! I need to get better at reading people and this helps somehow." The girl jumped and turned around to look at Satoshi straight in the eyes, "Like you Tonomi-san, you feel..." her sentence trailed off. She continued to stare in the boy's brown eyes, then shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Something wrong?" The Asian asked.

"No, uh, must be malfunctioning." She continued rubbing her eyes, ignoring the tense feeling inside her body. Satoshi...he...he didn't sense like anything. "Anyway, thank you for walking me home again Tonomi-san."

"...No problem..." The girl turned around to make her way to the mansion while Satoshi disappeared from sight, armor sliding around his body to prepare for what he was sure was going to be a battle up ahead.

"Izuru-nee!" The blonde jumped to the gym room, anxious to test out the contacts on a 'bored'. However when she opened the door she stared to see Haruhane posing in some strange stances that she had never seen before. At his last stance he turned around to look at Sarah, mild surprise actually written on his face. "H-Hi Eisel-san, what are you doing?" Sarah decided to ask, looking at the brunet calmly.

"Amateur fighting poses." He replied back bluntly, stretching a little bit more.

'It's true...I can't sense anything from him...It's like his mind is completely shut in. Devoid...hollow...it...it kind of hurts just to sense it.' "Really?"

"Yes, Go-chan suggested I try to train with Tanaka, but I need to learn how to do basics before I'm ready to take her on, or so Go says." He paused in his movement to talk to her. Actually this may have been the most Haruhane had ever spoken to her...

'His body has some scars...' Sarah stared visibly at the man, seeing the white marks of previous stitches and reddened marks. 'And I've never noticed, but he's actually really skinny.' Ribs, she definitely could see them if she looked closely. "Really? You don't know how to fight Eisel-san?" She asked, averting her thoughts away from the dreadful fact that Eisel-san just seemed...wrong. Besides, it did make her a bit curious because it seemed strange that Haruhane had been able to move around with the grace of a fighter if he had no experience.

"Kendo is all I know 'fighting' wise." Haruhane then pretended momentarily to have a blade in his hand, and Sarah watched as he moved it around at a pace that seemed faster then Sarah could understand. "Even then though, I'm not that talented about it." W-Whaaaaaa? That wasn't something 'talented'? "I have what they refer to as 'two left feet'." He took a stance and swung foreword with his right foot, but at the swing his entire body trembled awkwardly and slid him until he almost did the splits with his entire body. Sarah twitched, thinking that it must have hurt, but he only grunted and he climbed back up.

"I see...but you know, I would love to see you with a real sword someday Eisel-san!" The blonde laughed, ignoring the dark thoughts that started to build themselves in the back of her mind. After what she had seen in the alternative world...his mother still in the second mansion...but that couldn't be the reason...right?

Nighttime

In the darkness nearly glowed a figure as she made her way across the sidewalks with minimal contact with other people. Farther in the darkness an armored figure followed after her. The armor was a bit strange with intricate designs on the chest plate, and all around. The helmet had the most designs with a strange wingspan placed upon it. The teen's face was covered by some kind of armored facemask, and he frowned behind it as he continued to follow the 'ghostly' figure.

'I knew it.' The young man thought to himself, continuing to watch Sarah's hair blankly flow behind her. The white nightgown followed right after with languid language of numbness. 'The only question I have is why her?' He continued to follow after her until he spotted the familiar large skyscraper building of the Kinamotou Corp. The area was ill-lited, allowing the armored man to hide within the shadows well enough he wouldn't be spotted immediately and frowned as the middle-aged man Sarah had met earlier that day had came near the girl.

"So, you're the one who knows where the heir to the Kinmotou Company is. It's very nice to meet you." His voice was rough and made the hiding boy tense at the tone.

"Oh?" He tensed up even more at the background appearance of a short woman with dyed hair, her two absorption points lay straight for the world to see above her left eye. "It seems she knows something about that virtue that's been on bounty." His eyes narrowed at the woman's statement. "Stop borrowing my power for now." The woman commanded, letting the armored figure know what the middle-aged man's power was. He focused inwardly in putting up mental defenses with his impenetrable armor so it wouldn't be stolen when the man spoke,

"Alright, but find out about the Kinamotou heir."

"Yes, yes." The woman waved off the comment as she walked towards the blank eyed Sarah. The armored figure used that opportunity to slide up and pose himself to the side of the mind reader. Fiercely he punched the woman hard in the cheek and sent her flying away until she collided into the walls that held up the company.

"You left your guard down." A muffled voice behind the facemask spoke, his eyes turning viciously to the woman, "Reading minds like that."

"WHAT THE HELL!" She screeched, rubbing her cheek, more concerned about her face then the bleeding that came from her new wound on her skull. "Who the hell are you!?" The woman demanded.

"Careful Czech!" Her companion yelled at her, "I can't borrow his powers for some reason!" His tone seemed panicky and the women turned to him in shock,

"What!?" Now that she thought about, she couldn't read anything from him. His entire being spoke of the dull world of the good Bored, except there was nothing to penetrate to see the list of his mind.

"Now I suggest you release whatever hold you have on her." The stranger spoke, glaring with a trembling fist. "Or I may just have to kill you." There was no hesitance in his tone, but the partners didn't know what to make of it. They just blankly stared, "No?" The armored teen then set himself in a stern pose, "Then..." Shock jumped on both of their faces as the armored teen disappeared in front of their eyes. Fast! "Die." Before they could recognize where the voice had gone to, the teen had taken advantage of the confusion and forced his armor though the thick flesh and bones of the middle-aged man, tugging the heart out from it's previously protected plate and squeezed it. The woman stared terrified from her spot on the ground and screeched when the other hand forced the skull out of its socket and was thrown across to be right in front of her.

'What...so fast...a-and...' "Why the hell are you doing this!?" She cursed in fear and shock. Where had this thing come from!? "I see the light in your eyes! You have a contract with that man! So why are you attacking comrades!?" At least she assumed he was bored. He had to be an evil Bored like she and her dead partner were. The teen definitely had light and life in his eyes. The face mask disappeared from the teen's face, and she stared terrified as his armor slowly disappeared, a dark glow in the air taking what remains of her partner had been to be devoured from the absorption marks placed on the teen's left shoulder. She slowly counted, listening to his words,

"Contract? Comrades?"

'He has seven absorption points!'

"I have no comrades, and you've obviously never read the fine print of this contract." Who had been revealed was simply Satoshi Tonomi, with a soft displeased expression in his eyes.

"You...you're a..." Her comment was interrupted and she turned towards a soft noise that she should have paid attention to earlier when this figure slinked in, and out revealed someone who she could read.

"Gesell?" The young man commented, staring into the darkness with the familiar good Bored stare. The woman slunked up and frowned,

'I don't have time to deal with some stupid goody two-shoes. Now when there's a-'

"You...you're a bored, aren't you?" Haruhane spoke with a blank rational, standing besides Sarah. Czech ignored the question and looked around, fear in her entire body as she couldn't find where the other figure had disappeared too, nor could she sense him.

'No matter, I can probably find that...later. I'll just take care of this annoyance and cash in with the Kinamotou info.' The woman finally faced Haruhane with an annoyed expression, "Yeah? So what if I am?" She stared at him for a few more moments, realizing what he was in mere seconds. 'A super strength guy. Better avoid his attacks. Tire him down and then take him down.' Then like all good Bored, he gave her a chance to be ready and she taunted him, "Come." The woman ducked at the first fist that was easily readable and span around until she was behind him. The woman taunted him even more, removing his glasses, and laughed, "Are you near or far-sighted, Haru-chan?"

"You know my name?" He commented blankly, moving to elbow her in the face, only to slide a little bit because of the placement of his feet and she slid away easily. She held up his glasses and stuck her tongue out, teasing the brunet.

"Of course I do, Haru-chan. I'm a mind reader, and your identity is always on your mind." Haruhane tried once again to just punch her straight in the face, and she laughed, dodging it as easily as the first punch. "You won't beat me with those slow punches."

'That's true.' Satoshi thought to himself, watching closely from the middle desk that had been in the center of the building. 'This battle won't go anywhere. But if I can get Gesell awake than she could probably get out of the way and get someone else to help.' Satoshi subtly then heaved the monitor that had been on top down and saw that the screen was just sleeping and lightly typed on the keyboard. Meanwhile Haruhane had stupidly started another left punch, only this time to trip and fall down. The woman took her chance and kicked harshly at Haruhane's underbelly. Unconsciously, the young man's body coughed in pain and in an eager delight, she grinned,

"I see, you have a weak body." The taunt and mock clear in her voice. Satoshi couldn't help but sigh in his mind,

'Useless kind of guy then...' Twitching slightly as he heard more loud thunks of flesh being kicked harshly.

"Hah, kinda worthless for a man, aren't you? Though I guess I can see why." Haruhane's body started to breathe hard on itself, but froze when the woman started to speak again, "A spoiled brat whose mommy-" Immediately a fire lit and Haruhane tried to balance himself well enough to deliver a sweeping kick to the woman, but she simply just jumped into the air. "HAHA! So predictable!"

'Here we are!' Satoshi thought, finally hacking successfully into the computer.

"Good Bored's body reactions are so boring!"

'What an idiot, wasting her time taunting him. Sicko.' Satoshi couldn't help but think, continuing to lightly tap at the keystrokes on the keyboard. He looked up for a second and frowned in pain as Czech delivered a harsh kick to Haruhane's unmentionables. 'Ooo...a kick to the groin. That's just pure evil.' However he continued staring at the screen and finally found it. He didn't understand the entirety of it and he knew there was no time to learn as such, so he just started to erase it.

"So what if your mommy hurt you? Waa-waa. Contract like yours make me sick!" Sarah snapped out of her stupor and blinked.

"W-wha? Where am I?" Satoshi smiled behind his facemask. The action of Sarah's did not go unnoticed by Czech and she started to turn, because there was only one way to unleash that girl from her blank state of mind, and that had to mean that he was over by the computer! However before she could make a complete turn, Haruhane took advantage of her weak moment and harshly clamped both of his legs against her small body and forced himself up in instinct and delivered his one and only hit, straight into the belly. The hit caused the woman to collapse into darkness immediately and Haruhane pushed her off.

"E-Eisel-san!" The blonde blankly states. "What happened here? Why are we in the Kinamotou building?"

"I wanted to ask you the same thing." Haruhane replied bluntly as Sarah bent herself down to the still fallen brunet. After a few seconds of staring at each other, the girl then realized again where they really were and panicked,

"W-We can figure it out l-later! They have cameras! We need to get out of here!"

'Cameras, neh? I'll fix that.' Satoshi hummed, cracking his knuckles lightly in response to the duo fleeing the company building. As such they made it to the subways rather quickly and sat down next to each other quietly. Sarah frowned and looked over to Haruhane softly,

"Eisel-san...is...is it true?"

"Is what true?" The light in the subway flickered for a moment, almost matching Sarah's mood.

"D-Don't be like that. D...Did your mom really hurt you?" The brunet simply looked down, answering Sarah's question with silence. 'What do I say? Come on Sarah! You've been training for this kind of thing!' She demanded an answer from her mind but all that came out was, "Is that why you signed a contract?"

"One of the reasons I suppose." It was a logical tone he held and it sort of scared Sarah to hear it. The blonde licked her lips before asking.

"Why?"

"...My mother has a genetic disease that keeps her body really young called Turner Syndrome (5). I wasn't even supposed to be born, but the medicine my father produced made it possible, but one day the chemicals in her body were mixed to the point her brain couldn't take it and caused her to snap." Again, there was that creepy blunt logical tone, and it still scared Sarah. That was unbelievable though. Sarah had read about Turner Syndrome, and she agreed with Haruhane. There should be no way that he should have been born or even produced. Haruhane was a miracle baby...and...it explained why Haruhane's mother looked so young but old at the same time...and medicine. In the alternative universe, Haruhane had spoke to his mother about taking meds...

"So she just hit you." She finished off for him, and he nodded. The blonde sighed, feeling uncomfortable. 'Is this really why he signed a contract? It sounds like he understands the reasoning behind it...Why are people so hard to understand? What was the point in taking all of those classes and reading all those books if I can even understand the reasoning of one male!?' The blonde rubbed her forehead in pain and annoyance.

"Did you get anything from that building to make you like that?" Haruhane interrupted her thought process and she jumped at the question. Was she strange or something earlier? She couldn't think back, her entire memory was blank and black, like she had been sleeping the whole time.

"Just these empathy contacts." The girl realized she still had them in her eyes and twitched, taking them out.

"...Let me take them for analysis."

"Eh?"

"Obviously the Kinamotou Corporation did something to these contacts. Analysis would be informative." Sarah nodded and handed the contacts to the man, staring quietly at him the rest of the way home. Meanwhile Satoshi stretched, popping his back once from his position on the ground,

"All done!" A little heart could be tellable in his tone. "Though I can't hack into much. Their security's pretty harsh on everything except the cameras." He frowned, though it made sense if the Kinamotou Corporation did a lot of unsavory acts like thought, then they'd want to delete their footage of the days that went bad, and it'd be easier to access it if you didn't have a complicated password for it.

"You...sin..." Satoshi blinked as he heard the raspy and painful voice of the woman. That must mean that Haruhane didn't have any absorption points, otherwise he would have absorbed her. "You...w-why d-did you...i-inter...fere?" Satoshi stood up from the ground and stared at the crawling woman who held her stomach and Satoshi frowned, seeing the internal bleeding even from her covered dress.

"Still alive huh? Must be real painful though." Satoshi threw his own taunts, letting the woman know that she had been wrong in playing with her opponent earlier. Czech took a deep gulp, crying as it pained her to do just that and took all of her breath to yell.

"Why did you do it? Absorbing a good contract gives you more power and you know it! You're also a sin! Why take out one of the people on your side?"

"Oh? So you already know of that kind of stuff?" Satoshi comment, slipping over the desk and sitting on it with a dark stare. A smile to match the dark eyes grew as he jumped off the desk and Czech stared in terror as metaphysical fiery wings popped from Satoshi's back in a mystic air. "Then you should know," she stared with tears starting to pour from her eyes, "That sins don't give a damn about 'sides'." Her screams pierced throughout the building as the focus turns itself back to our duo, returning home in the darkness. Sarah carefully whispered,

"We're home." The girl then turned over to Haruhane, who had yet to let go of her hand since she had requested to hold it, "I'm going to go check on Izuru-nee." The girl made her way to the guest room and peeked in and jumped when the door slammed shut on her. "Izuru? What's wrong?" She urgently yelled as the door didn't budge.

"G-Get Eisel." A tired response replied, and groaned, thinking, 'Dammit. I absorbed my max today...I can barely move.'

"Are you in trouble?" If Izuru were a normal person she would have thought 'duh' but she was too busy having her mouth covered. A bit in a tired motion, the woman forced all of her remaining strength into kicking the man in the balls, and he cursed out, while she ran out of the room.

"Run." Sarah nodded and guided Sarah into one of the many bathrooms of the household and panted loudly,

"We'll be safe here." The blonde fell to the ground near the toilet, Izuru following after, and Sarah let her lay in her lap. "Are you okay Izuru-nee?" The blonde asked softly, rubbing the top of the brunette's head.

"A-Actually..." She took a deep long breath, "My body feels...strange." That sounded troublesome, and a tad-bit scary. Izuru was actually able to describe what she was feeling. Scary indeed.

"Don't worry! Eisel-san will get rid of that guy and we'll get you to bed." The girl tried to exercise a sisterly tone and Izuru heaved another tired sigh.

"So this is what it's like if you absorb everything in a day. No wonder why D.J. got angry at Go all the time, my body just feels so weird." So many scary things were happening lately, Izuru sounded almost...human.

'Fight after fight, no breaks or peace...so it's really true. They lose their personalities because something bad happens...' It's so sad. Really sad. Sarah started to hum a bit and sing the little ditty she had accidentally memorized when she heard it from Izuru's mp3 player (6).

"...Why are you singing that?" Izuru asked, her eyes barely open thanks to the soft voice of Sarah's.

"Has a nice tune...and it's important to you. I thought it would be nice for you to hear it."

"...Thank you..."

"You know what this song's about Izuru?" The teen asked, looking down at the woman. The other's eyes spoke 'no' and Sarah understood that was probably because it was in English, "I think it's about trying to understand someone and their thoughts, only to fail. But that person keeps trying anyway...I've been feeling that way a lot lately." She admitted sadly, but wasn't allowed to dwell as the bathroom door slammed open. Sarah immediately covered up Izuru, screaming in fear, only to jump when Haruhane came to the rescue and gave a firm punch to the stranger that had him flying forward and instinctively, Izuru delivered a kick to punch the man back to Haruhane. In return Haruhane started to thoroughly crush him.

"Eisel-san!" Sarah stared terrified, "Stop! You're killing him!" The blonde demanded him to stop, feeling sick as she watched the man's face being crushed into itself. Izuru blocked the girl's sight from the continued beating by pulling her close,

"Don't move." Izuru firmly spoke, holding the girl's face near.

"But..."

"We're already dead." She whispered to the American and Sarah just froze. "So it's not committing murder." Terror flew through her spine.

'Already dead? B-But...OH GOD.'

"Gesell, help Tanaka to a safer room. I have to clean up this mess." Hesitantly the blonde helped the brunette up and kept her eyes high to the ceiling, avoiding the bloody looking Haruhane and the corpse on the ground. She gagged back the bile that rose form her throat and continued to guide Izuru up to her room.

'I've never been so sick in my life...I-I saw murder. T-T...I can't take today!'

"Gesell?"

'Too much happened today! It's too much to take!'

"Gesell?" Izuru's voice spoke again, this time a little concerned sounding.

"I'm sorry Izuru-nee...I...I just need to rest." The girl heaved a dry sigh and wiped the tears starting at her eyes. 'Go said to me once that God took Sunday off for a reason.' Sarah stared as Izuru flopped herself down in Sarah's bed and she continued to stare, before going to the balcony where the light of the moon showed itself beautiful in a haunting way. 'I don't think there are enough Sunday's in my life to understand all of this.'

Chapter IX.

A Sin, A Virtue, and A Book

"Every person's life is a fairytale written by God's fingers."

- Hans Christian Anderson

Darkness overcame the hideout, stormy clouds seemed only to cover only the household, and within the house in the living room, sitting down on a couch being harshly stared at was one Ganego.

"Go..."

"Meep..." Ganego whispered underneath his breath and yelped as a wave of angry magic abruptly carried the young teen off into his room forcefully.

"HOW DARE YOU GET IZURU CLOSE TO LOSING HER POWERS!" D.J. yelled, forcefully summoning a spike to come from the ground, a noose around the teen's neck, and made a little water start dripping from the roof to his forehead. Normally, D.J. wasn't allowed to use magic but God often forgave him when it was used in anger and instinct rather then on purpose, "Don't you come out until you either choke, fall unconscious, or there are scars on your behind!" D.J. pointingly yelled at the young teen and slammed the door loudly. To replace Ganego on the couch, Sarah sat in his spot, smiling at Ganego's pain. "Ugh," D.J. spoke, a voice full of pure ignorant sarcasm, "Back home in this place."

'He's so happy to be back.'

"Why is he smiling?"

"You don't say those things out loud Izuru-nee." Sarah advised, then jumping when a loud voice called out,

"D.J.!" Azreal jumped into the living room, covered up with a hat, a scarf, and a thick coat. As soon as he came closer, he jumped on the red-skinned d'jinn, sobbing and hugging the magical being close. "Why didn't you tell me it was your time of the year!? I could've went with you!" D.J. glared angrily over at Sarah, who was forcing herself not to laugh and covering her mouth forcefully.

"Not. A. Word." That tempted her but she ignored the temptation when Azreal stood up and touched Izuru's face, blinking in confusion,

"Eh? Izuru, is that you? You seem different." The dark-haired shinigami asked curiously.

'Now that I think about it, Azreal and D.J. treat Izuru like a princess compared to Go.' Sarah thought, half-listening to D.J. explaining to Azreal that Izuru had absorbed five people the other day. 'I thought it was because she was 'bored' but D.J. doesn't do much with Eisel-san.' Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud cry of Ganego which was only slightly muffled.

"Sarah, go ahead and help Go now." D.J. commented cheerfully, with stars in his eyes.

''Cause that's not creepy at all.' Sarah looked away and walked towards Ganego's room. After removing the noose from Ganego, and staring at the mysterious metal spike, Ganego moved to his mirror and bench, rubbing his bottom.

"Thank you Sarah-chan." Ganego gave a loud sign, "Ugh, I should have known better. Well at least D.J.-san didn't do torture method 62." Sarah only pondered for one quick second of how many other methods there were, but completely ignored the thought and looked over to Ganego,

"D.J.-san must really hate normal guys." She pondered out loud, remembering a little of D.J.'s remarks the first time they met.

"Nah, he just doesn't like Izuru in trouble." The tattooed teen commented. The blonde frowned and glared,

"Why, he kinda has to get used to it, what with the whole boredom fight for your...soul thing..." The blonde moved her hands as though that would gesture the emphasis of Izuru's danger.

"Well...Izuru's what they call a virtue."

"A virtue?"

"Well...the way D.J.-san described it to me, if you took a person into a room with five people and asked for them to vote on the person's best virtue, the person would get a vote for each. The same goes with a sin, except with seven people." Sarah just blinked blankly and felt her head tumble. Whaaa? Well let's think on one thing's first,

"There are only five virtues?"

"Well...yes and no..." Ganego rubbed his hair, frowning as he continued to describe what D.J. had explained to him long ago, "I don't really understand the whole virtue and sin thing when it comes up to the higher planes." He told the truth. Ah. So no answers. Oh well, it must not be that important...

"Hey...Go, is it true that they're already dead?" The dark-haired Japanese boy blinked, and frowned slightly.

"Yes. How else do you think their souls are guaranteed to Heaven when their bodies die?" Sarah must have thrown a confused look, because the boy got up and passed her, heading to his closet and took off his uniform top. The blonde blushed lightly, "It makes sense, you're selling away your soul when you sign a contract. So technically you're dead. Good bored don't disobey the Ten Commandants, so their contract binds their soul to Heaven. Bad contracts go to Hell, simple as that."

"...S...So...G-God is really real?" The young-adult felt her heart beat loudly. She had never really asked about it, because she actually hadn't really thought about it because she had been too busy thinking about the whole contract thing. The true existence of God or the Devil seemed too...unreal. Though now after all she had been through...maybe she could actually believe in the upper existence of a creator and a destroyer.

"Who knows?" Sarah felt her heart plummet slightly, "All I'm really told is that the Ten Commandants are definitely real." Ganego paused to slip a shirt over his naked chest and looked up slightly.

"Go?"

"Sorry...thought I sensed something." His eyebrows came together, a little upset as he felt a flick of chaotic power in the air, except it disappeared too quickly. The boy then started to take off his belt, groaning slightly, "Let's not talk about religion, it gets me in a foul mood." Sarah smiled despite herself,

'So even Go has things he's uncomfortable with.'

"That's one thing I've learned, no matter what question you ask, they won't answer any questions of the after-life." Sarah assumed 'they' were D.J. and anyone else who was bored.

"I thought D.J. couldn't tell any lies."

"Nope, but he can avoid the truth like the plague." Ganego turned and Sarah stared down with wide eyes. She then turned around and slammed the door shut, exiting the young boy's room. Her face was covered in a violent red as her screeched filled the household. Izuru came up, looking oddly concerned,

"Gesell?"

"Go...that's what...blu...eugh...cheese..." Izuru stared, concerned. She couldn't understand a single word that came out of the younger girl's mouth. Izuru assumed it was English, and just continued listening to the poor red girl's mumbled words, "Pe...Go...I...gah...eeeugh...that I...meep..." D.J. and Azreal past her and shut themselves in Ganego's room and Izuru blinked as she heard D.J.'s tremendously loud voice once again.

"Damn you and your lack of shame Go! If men and women were meant to see each other before marriage, you'd all be walking around naked!" Izuru found an eyebrow raising and Sarah continued mumbling English words while D.J.'s screams heightened, "You ruined a virgin's eyes! Azreal! Help me put his mind in a black hole!"

"D.J. put your wish pill down." Azreal's voice was muffled, as was expected a normal voice, but D.J.'s magical voice cut off the rational shinigami.

"BUT SOME BOXERS AND PANTS ON AND APOLOGIZE TO THAT GIRL!"

"B-But I don't understand what I did wrong."

"I'll show you what you did wrong!" At this point Ganego's scream managed to interrupt D.J.'s yells and gave Izuru a little time to think. She thought about the mumbles that Sarah continued to spill, her face bright red and her eyes glazed over. Then she remembered something about a virgin's eyes...

"Go-chan..." Her voice hissed out, realizing something was very wrong, and she might be feeling very angry. The woman gently put the blonde in her arms down on the couch and found her body stomping into Ganego's room, who had just finished yelling 'No don't make me swallow that!' "Go-chan..." The entities stared over at the woman that entered the room and Ganego paled the most at the brunet, as she cracked her knuckles and stared down. Haruhane came through the main door, walking up to Sarah, blatantly ignoring the outright cries and screams of pain that were only slightly muffled in the background.

"Gesell, are you ready for tonight?" Sarah stared up at the rich man and her face darkened.

"E-Eisel-san!" Her body froze and she breathed a little uneasily, imagining what Haruhane might have looked...under there. "U-Uh, yeah! I-I just need to change!" She took a deep breath, shaking her perverted images out of her head and yelled, "Good-bye Izuru-nee!" The woman stopped ruthlessly beating Ganego for one second and looked out to the door she had kept open,

"Good-bye Gesell," her tone did not match her body but Sarah just nodded and walked out with Haruhane. Later that evening, after being dressed in a fancy dress, Sarah stood near a pillar and she tried to get used to her heels, and sighed, toying with her dressed back hair and diamond earrings.

'Thank goodness, I only have to do this once for my stay here.' Sarah thought honestly. 'It's weird to be at a rich person's party.' She was advised not to talk to anybody, and basically to just stand there and look pretty. She could do that, blushing lightly as she looked over to Haruhane, seeing him surrounded by older gentlemen and women. 'This is embarrassing...well at least there are a lot of people Eisel-san has to interact with.' Haruhane was speaking in low mumbles, brushing his cleaned hair back every once in awhile and messing it up. 'He looks really annoyed though...' Struggling a little bit with her heels but made it through the small crowd and grabbed the awkward Haruhane. "Come on Eisel-san, let's go dance." He followed her and they moved to the middle of the large mansion room and they started to dance, a light waltz. The blonde made sure she was as close as possible and blushed, this would probably the best Sarah would ever get to being in a 'date' like situation. "You're really willing to do anything for your dad, aren't you Eisel-san?"

"What do you mean?" Sarah almost tripped and blushed as Haruhane grabbed the girl before she could fall.

"Well you do a lot of work for him, you even attend these awkward social things."

"He asked me to." Haruhane bluntly spoke.

"...Hah...that's really nice of you I think, it's admirable."

"If you think so." The blonde feigned annoyance but enjoyed being near the brunet too much to actually be too annoyed by his blank tone.

"You really love your dad, huh?"

"Not really." Sarah looked up with slight surprise but then nodded,

"Because you're bored right?"

"Probably." She stared up into his blank eyes that were very rarely seen because of his thick glasses, he didn't have them on today. "But I remember before, and I don't think what I felt was love." She looked down at the comment, thinking to what had happened previously.

"Anything to do with your mom?"

"Hm."

"...I'm sorry Eisel-san. I shouldn't have asked...it's not important right now." The girl then stopped the dance, grabbing Haruhane's hands and putting them together, "We appeared, so let's just hide somewhere now, like in a library or something."

"Hm." Haruhane guided the young woman to a small room and Sarah smiled at a room full of books, a small table to put books on, and a computer table. Sarah immediately took the tie in her hair out, glad to feel it weave out and sat down, studying the bookcases of glass.

"I love books," the blonde stated cheerfully. "Especially theoretical books. Reading is really fun!" Haruhane remained silent, taking off his black tuxedo coat and staring into the frames. "Do you like books Eisel-san?"

"Not really, I always thought literature was...annoying." The blonde jumped cheerfully, she found something out about her crush!

"Hah! That makes sense! Most Math majors don't like English." The blonde smiled at the basic personality trait. It made her feel comfortable for something so simple, but then she stared long at the brunet. Poor Eisel-san. "Eisel-san, how many things do you think about through a day?"

"Not many, why?"

"I just wanted a genius' perspective. There are so many things that I don't understand."

"Well there will always be things you don't understand." The so-called genius bluntly remarked. Sarah 'hmmmed' and commented back,

"Like why you became bored. You...you seem to understand, but you're still bored." The blonde jumped slightly as she was suddenly subjected to a dark-eyed glare.

"Shut up."

'I think I realized then...'

"People aren't meant to be understood and analyzed! Just because you know a part of the problem, doesn't it can make sense! You don't know anything about me, so shut up!"

'That...Eisel-san is probably just a kid. His body's natural reaction was so childish.' The blonde thought back of what Ganego spoke about nearly a week ago. The man in front of her still had the soul of a child...and something about his words rang true though. 'I don't need to understand. At least, not yet. Because he's right! I have to wait until he tells me about himself, that...that is what a therapist did, they have to listen before they can assume.' Sarah just smiled at the man older than her.

The Next Day

"Good morning Tonomi-san!" The Japanese teen stared in surprise as the foreigner walked up the long stairs and up to the desk they all shared in a long row. "Today is a grand day! Where people realized that all you need to do is listen and life will be so much easier!" The blonde stopped before her seat and held out a hand to her ear and let silence penetrate the air. "See! The silence makes it so you don't have to think! Beautiful!" The happy smile on the blonde's face seemed to be covered with flowers and little stars. Satoshi couldn't help but stare and the question exited his mouth,

"Did you get laid or something?" Sarah could almost feel crickets speak in the air, despite she knew it wasn't possible as grasshoppers were not an indigenous part of Japan.

"BASTARD!" The blonde twitched angrily, growing in anger, "Why do you always have to ruin my good mood!" The girl furiously yelled at the boy. Satoshi however just laughed at the girl's obvious mood,

"Hehe, that's so cute." At the comment, the blonde was completely taken back.

"Cute?" 'Nah! That was just my imagination! I must be getting full of myself because I got flirted with in that alternative world.' The blonde then just sat down, ignoring the words that had came from Satoshi's mouth. However the boy twitched,

'W...What do I do now? I don't know if I should keep pissing her off or a-ask her...out on a...d-d...' His face flushed lightly, 'I'm pathetic! I can't even think it in my head!' Satoshi took a deep breath, deciding it once and for all. He would ask Sarah out! Before school started too! "Ge-"

"Sarah-chan!" Sarah stood up cheerfully and Satoshi hit his fists on the desk as the girl went down to the middle schooler down on the ground,

"Oh Go." D'waaargh! He missed his chance! Sarah finally made it down and Satoshi couldn't help but glare down at the younger teen on the ground floor. They spoke silently until Sarah yelped, "WHAT!?" He tried to listen in closer, but failed as their normal talks went to a whisper,

"Shhh, don't panic. I just thought you should know." Ganego continued to whisper quietly.

"So don't come over today?" The blonde whispered fervently back.

"Yeah." Sarah frowned in worry,

'Now I'm worried. Izuru was sucked into a book by a bored? Please be safe Izuru-nee.' The blonde thought, hoping the best for the woman she could consider as an older sister. The day continued with Sarah worrying about the older woman, until the end of the day. She hadn't noticed the boy behind her until she opened her locker,

"Gesell-san, would you go out with me?" The boy heaved out nervously and the blue-eyed teen stared palely at her personal bully. Immediately, she shut her locker, put her normal boots on and walked out of the school, "Eh? Where are you going?" Sarah gritted her teeth together irrationally, fury building up in the temple of her mind,

"There's no way in the seven circles of Hell I will ever date you." She hissed, then moved back to walking fervently ahead, avoiding the dark-haired boy.

"There are more than seven circles of Hell." Satoshi stated and he couldn't help but think it was more of a comedic line than an argument, "At least according to Dante." He finished with a small smile but then wrapped his arms around his body, "Besides, you made me go out in the cold without my coat, you should date me."

"THAT'S YOUR OWN FAULT!" The blonde hissed loudly. The girl then frowned, "Though you're right, it is pretty-" she looked up, noticing the light snow falling and gasped as she saw some kind of symbol in the sky. 'What is that?' And before she knew it, something hit her harshly and she fell unconscious, Satoshi grabbing her before she could fall.

"Gesell?" The Sin stared down at the body and glared up, 'Who would dare?'.

"Sorry, sorry," a dark-haired girl spoke from atop a wall. Satoshi blinked as he could see a young woman in the most skankiest thing he had ever seen outside of a red-light district (1). "This area's under construction for a reason, so I just knocked out your friend there. Your fault for going past the warning line." The stranger continued to grin.

"...So we did..." Satoshi looked back to see the normal construction notice, and he frowned a bit. What had that woman used to knock Sarah out? He didn't see.

"Now do me a favor and drag her out of here, m'kay? No one except construction members are allowed here." The dark-haired woman then waved the two away. Satoshi took one last stare at the symbol in the air,

'I'll check out what that symbol in the sky means later...' Satoshi dragged the unconscious Sarah off to the closest place, his house. "Nii-san, I'm home." From a closed room filled with the scene of oils and paints,

"Welcome home Satoshi," a man spoke, his glasses and small five-o'clock shadow speaking more of his age then his youthful face. "I'm in the study!" The man stopped painting and smiled as his younger brother moved in sight and he jumped, "What the?" But after staring closely at the fainted blonde over his shoulder, he smiled. "Oh I see. A girl fainted, and that's the foreign exchange student in your school and our home was close." Satoshi's older brother spoke with a blunt remark, acknowledging what he thought was the truth.

"How the hell do you do that niisan?" Satoshi was once again stunned by his older brother's overwhelming power to deduct what had happened within small moments. Suboshi smiled though, staring at his younger brother. Suboshi then helped his younger brother to put the blonde in his bed and Satoshi went out, changing into a more casual clothing outside of his room. Sarah groaned and in return, Suboshi spoke, "Good morning!" A sickening sense of deja vu overwhelmed the blonde,

"It's the evening..."

"Well the meaning's the same!" Sarah felt a little sick. The blonde then frowned at the stranger,

"Uh...who are you?" She moved within the blankets she was covered in and blinked in curiosity.

"Tonomi, Suboshi-chan, if you please." Eh? This was Satoshi's relative? He looked pretty...young...and...pretty. "Age 31," HOLY CRAP! Thirty-one!? "Birthday, 10/06, blood type B+, job: painter, bust-"

"Nii-san! No more info!" The older man was hit on the head by the boy who owned the room. He glared at his brother momentarily then looked over to Sarah and smiled, "Gesell, are you-" his sentence stopped as Sarah's hair flew up and angrily around. She gripped the sheets with fury and anger, "well..." he stopped. The girl continued glaring with fire in her eyes and Satoshi did the wisest thing in his life, "I'll go make tea!" And left the room.

"You do that!" Sarah yelled after the slam of the door. Suboshi smirked and laughed in his hand.

"So you're the foreign exchange student, neh?" Sarah shifted from her seat in the bed and looked up at the taller man,

'He's just so...pretty...I can't believe he's related to Tonomi-san and he's so old...' "Uh yes, I'm Gesell, Sarah."

"Gesell-chan, hm? It's good to know Satoshi is in good hands."

"No offence, but I don't really like Tonomi-san," Sarah glared forward, acknowledging that she might offend the older brother.

"Ah," the older man smiled and laughed with a smile, "the springs of youth (2)." The blonde blinked at the bizarre comment. The girl then turned and blinked to see a painting hanging by Satoshi's door and stared blankly at it. It was a dark image with two people in it, one of the people looked hallowed out, while the other one seemed to be covered in feathers and half-covered wings over the hallowed boy. A cage like a prison behind in the background with a moon with an evil grin stood out, as well as a symbol that was the only thing colored in the entire picture. It looked like a cross, but it had too many points.

"So...you're a painter? That looks beautiful." Suboshi blinked and smiled,

"That one always catches people's eyes." The man stated innocently.

"It's...kind of a sad painting though, isn't it?" Again, the older man blinked and smiled. Sarah jumped as the older man pat her harshly on her shoulders,

"No wonder why Satoshi likes you!" The blonde blushed lightly, what was he talking about!? Satoshi was just a bully. The blonde stared as the older man pulled out glasses that seemed to fit his face more than not and he laughed, "Now to see what you look like up close!" He stared at her closely before commenting, "You see, most people think that painting's creepy."

"I've only sold about 30 copies of this painting in particular. The dark blending and use of a prison with a black angel always creeped people, especially since those wings cradle a dark child." Sarah moved off the bed and pat the bed,

"Hm...how can I say this?" Outside Satoshi stopped outside of the door and listened, "I think the theory's all wrong." Sarah decided then that she liked Satoshi's older brother a lot more than Satoshi himself.

"Huh?" Suboshi questioned, blinking with an interest in what the younger girl had to say about his painting.

"Well, I'm not an artist at all, but...Well I want to say I'm an expert in analysis." The blonde blushed and rubbed the back of her head, laughing slightly.

"Oho! Really?"

"Yes! And...well, this painting is nothing more then a symbol of being captured in a prison with a strange person who's like a dark person."

"Oh? You really think that?"

"Yeah! And...it's sad because...the kid who's being protected...well...has basically been blackened and darkened by the outside source who is only smiling at his pain."

"Ah, you really are an analysis type of person. You got some talent." Suboshi commented cheerfully. "You figured out that from just one of my paintings. I see why Satoshi likes you for sure!"

'Niisan...'

"Stop saying such embarrassing things!" Sarah yelled at the older man, blushing even more. Why did he keep insisting that Satoshi liked her? Crazy man.

"I'm somewhat of an analyst myself, but you obviously deal with the psychology more than a crime scene, and you're quite pretty up close too, very exotic." Suboshi kept flowing the compliments and Sarah couldn't help but feel complimented like he seemed to have intended. However after all the flowing compliments and the two jumped as a loud sound landed on the ground. Suboshi flew to the door and frowned at the tea set on the ground. A dark look overcame his face,

"What was that Suboshi-san?" The older brother gave an overanxious sigh,

"It's nothing Gesell-chan, do you mind me driving you home instead of having that cup of tea?" The older man didn't turn and Sarah just blinked.

"Uh...sure?" Suboshi finally turned, his eyes closed with a fake smile.

One Week Later

"It's been a week." D.J. stated angrily, glaring over the flouting table and Sarah sighed, putting down the tea she had prepared on request.

"You guys still haven't found the bored that got Izuru stuck in a book?"

"No, and I've had Go working all day and night." D.J. commented, sipping from a cup placed in front of him.

"I think I found a lead." Ganego came out from a room, his eyes looking tired and dark, he blinked, "Sarah-chan, you're here."

"You've been gone for a week, so I was worried." Sarah stated, frowning. D.J. interrupted the two's somewhat intimate problem.

"So? Your lead?"

"I've been contacting some of the other contracts and they've been noticing the disappearances." Ganego frowned and rubbed the tattoo above his left eye with a tired look, "So there's a pattern and we may need Haru before we go after the guy."

"Do you think she's okay at least?" Sarah anxiously questioned.

"Well she hasn't been absorbed if that's what you mean." D.J. stated, sipping from his cup once again.

"What kind of bored is this guy?"

"You have to ask Go that crap." He inched his head towards the tired teen who retreated back into his room as though to focus again, "I've never been focused on that stuff."

"Eh? Why not?"

"As long as Izuru survives the fight, I don't care." The dark-skinned d'jinn commented lightly. Ganego then came back out, less tired but his face was a little wetter.

"To answer your question Sarah, this guy's power is to suck bored into a book. They're probably absorbed if they don't pass the book's trial."

"So there's a way out?" Ganego took one of the cups on the flouting table and sighed after taking a deep gulp.

"Well, all books have endings."

"Do we know that she's okay at least?"

"Well I know she's still alive." D.J. replied for Ganego, frowning a little bit.

"Sarah-chan, it'd probably be best if you went home." The boy patted the blonde and led her out to the door.

"I guess..."

The Next Day

"So you lost him?" Sarah frowned, covering her mouth with the scarf she was given because of the light snow that had started pouring from the coming December.

"Yeah..." Ganego frowned, looking away with a frown, "My detector kinda failed." Sarah stared and frowned. She then looked away and realized something,

"Go...why do you have a power? Even as defective as it is?" The two stopped and Ganego blanked out. Should he really say it?

"The truth..." However before he could speak more of the truth, someone dashed down the street, covering a book and Ganego hissed as his sensor only reacted when the stranger opened the book he held furiously. Sarah blinked and before the two could comprehend they were in a new scenery, covered in different clothes. "Oh crap." The red-eyed teen spoke, frozen.

"AHHHHH!" Sarah yelled, looking at the situation, they were both on a cliff with some kind of cheesy sun in the background, and she was dressed in some kind of strange tang-top and her shorts kept trying to fall off of her. "Are you kidding me!? I can't even get absorbed, so why am I here!?" What the hell, what the hell, what the HELL!!! Ganego frowned,

"Sorry Sarah-chan. I didn't sense the guy before it was too late." The boy turned around and rubbed his tattoo again, groaning unhappily, "Something's been interfering with my sense lately." Sarah paled as a spear popped up from behind her, immediately she jumped to Ganego, clinging to him in fear. "Dammit, guess this is a fantasy book..." However the boy then smiled, "In that case though..." The boy turned Sarah to where she couldn't see his gaze, and his eye (the other eye had been covered by some kind of bandage) glowed blue, glaring at the surrounding soldiers. "Back, off." Sarah jumped cheerfully as they fled.

"They...ran away."

"Well it is a fantasy book! I have something like a Medusa Stare." Ganego lied.

"Medusa turned everyone to stone with her gaze." Sarah stated the obvious.

"Hey! You have levitation abilities!"

'Don't change the subject'. However she let it happen and let Ganego explain how her newly founded powers worked and she followed him when he tracked his way to follow after the soldiers so they could get some semblance of how this world worked. They eventually managed to make it to a cheesy looking crowded town,

"A real fantasy town..." Ganego spoke, seemingly to be stunned.

"You could probably go to the Middle East and find towns like this though." Sarah shrugged, and the two jumped slightly when a huge man that was bandaged came up with a deep voice,

"What a cute girl. How much you selling her for?" Immediately the young blonde twitched and took one of the many stands in the area and forced it to crush the stranger.

"Let's go Go."

"...You got used to your new powers, didn't you?" Sarah laughed, a smirk building her face.

"Well of course I got used to it." She then posed in a victorious happiness, "I'll save Izuru-nee this time! So I'll enjoy this world as much as I can!"

"...You're actually pretty violent, aren't you Sarah?"

"I'll show you violent!"

"Gesell?" A familiar voice spoke before Sarah could actually lay a fist on Ganego and she looked up. She dropped the teen and ran up to the older woman, hugging around her waist with happiness,

"Izuru-nee!"

"Gesell-san?" Another surprised voice spoke, and she stared with shock.

"Tonomi-san!" The young teen froze over, 'How am I going to explain all of this to this guy!?' Ganego frowned and stared at Satoshi. He had really only seen the other not to long ago, but...he felt something was wrong with this guy.

"Uh...let's talk in a safer place." Satoshi pointed to an inn, and ended up guiding the two while Izuru moved to go pay the innkeeper for the room once again. Once in the room, Sarah immediately moved her hands around and spoke in a somewhat eerie tone,

"You've been in a cooomaaaaa. This is alll a dreaaam."

'Who would believe that?' Both boys thought to themselves, staring at the blue-eyed foreigner. Ganego frowned, his gaze darkening as he stared at Satoshi who commented that he knew that he wasn't dreaming.

'There's something wrong with this guy.'

"I think we should focus on escaping this book." Izuru's voice interrupted Ganego's thoughts. Sarah continued the conversation,

"Have you found any way so far?"

"Maybe, we have to defeat the King's Army to get to his Moon Castle, we think." Izuru pointed over at Satoshi plainly and he nodded. "There have been quit ea few people who had gone to battle against the King's Army, a lot have disappeared after being defeated. We've tried to break up the lines, but it hasn't been working." Izuru explained plainly.

"Has to do with Moon Castle, I think." Satoshi stated, "Fantasy's have a never-ending army and junk like that often." Ganego frowned and came closer, stating the truth,

"You guys should have easily taken over any army by now. You have celestial and dark fire."

"Fire?" The two spoke with confusion.

"So that's why everyone has trouble getting out of this book, you guys have no idea what your powers are!" A clap of applause came from Sarah's hands and she smiled,

"Oh I get it! Good thing you're here then Go!" Satoshi frowned for a moment.

"Now listen carefully Tonomi-san, I don't want to repeat myself." Ganego spoke, acknowledging the older teen, "Izu-chan has celestial fire which can only burn impure, while dark burns all and negative emotions. However if they meet each other, they'll cancel each other, so it's easy to take over an army with this fire." Ganego then started to talk more about strategy and Satoshi spoke plainly,

"He's really knowledable."

"When it comes to this stuff," Sarah giggled, "He really sucks at math." The girl teased lightly. The four then listened and planned the battle plan and then turned in for the night. However in the night, Satoshi felt himself stir with the whispered sobs of his crush,

"Wake up. Izu-nee, please wake up. I...I need a hug..." Sarah sobbed quietly, shaking the unmovable woman beneath her arms.

"Gesell?" Blue eyes filled with tears looked through the darkness at him,

"To-Tonomi-san?"

"W-What's wrong?" He felt his heart beat. Sarah sniffed and glared in the darkness,

"Nothing that you could make fun of me for!"

"That's not what I wanted to do." Satoshi replied back, and frowned as Sarah wiped her eyes. He felt uncomfortable as she heaved a quiet sob and whispered to him.

"Go back to sleep Tonomi-san." He glanced off into the darkness, blushing slightly as Sarah slinked back into her futon, no doubt her eyes teary-eyed and she was still shaking with sadness. Satoshi moved from his own futon and surprised the girl by lifting her from her sleeping position and into his lap. He wrapped his arms around the smaller girl and blushed.

"Is this the hug you needed?"

"...Yes..."

"Uh...do you..."

"I don't want to talk to you about it Tonomi-san."

"Hey, that's harsh." Satoshi didn't hide his offense.

"You're just a bully." He frowned, "I don't want to give you more fuel."

"I...I don't...um...I won't make fun of you because of nightmares. I'm not that mean." Satoshi emphasized. Sarah sighed in his grasp and started to whisper,

"I've been having nightmares, that's all. Truths I can't understand, actions that aren't logical. I've been studying my whole life to study and understand people. But it's different in real life than in text books."

"Well duh, you live in a rock all of your life or something?"

"No...I just studied a lot, that's all. I would go home to read and help take care of Abe, I never really interacted with others, except teachers." Satoshi found himself surprised by this comment and remarked back,

"You talk to people pretty well though."

"Maybe." Her self-esteem didn't speak well and Satoshi found himself even more surprised by this then what the girl had admitted, "That doesn't mean anything. I've just been trying to not try so hard. But it doesn't matter, 'cause tomorrow I'll relieve all of this stress and then you'll forget everything, just like the time skip." Sarah stretched and yawned, rubbing her eyes for a moment. "We should go to sleep."

"...Neh, Gesell, do you believe in forgiveness?" The blonde blinked and stared at the sudden question and frowned in thoughtfulness.

"I believe in change, and forgiveness can only happen with change. Now go back to your futon." The teen hit the other teen on the face slightly but it didn't hurt and it was more of a teasing touch, at least that is how it felt to him. He smiled, he liked that answer far more than anything else he had heard before. The night passed and in the morning the four traveled to the King's Army land and the immediate reaction was first from Sarah. An evil cackle of a stressed girl echoed in the air and the boys paled, thinking they had seen a demon. Fire flew, Ganego stared with a blue-eyed gaze, and Sarah made bodies fly and collide together. The army was defeated so easily, the four was surprised when they ended up back into the reality known as the real world. In the center was the bored that had sucked the four into the book, he was a pale sickly looking bookworm.

"Izuru, behind you!" Ganego emphasized and immediately Izuru flew a fist to brutally hit said bookworm. He shrieked and immediately she absorbed him.

"What the hell just happened?" Satoshi asked while Sarah looked around,

"Where are we?" She stared terrified, the room they were in was a room full of posters. "It's a room full of missing people!"

"It doesn't matter, we need to get going." Ganego grabbed Sarah and started moving,

"Wha?"

"A load of people are going to appear from the book soon." They all fled and Sarah stared as a cloud appeared out from the small house they ran from.

'I could have sworn though...I saw Izuru-nee's picture on that wall!'

Chapter X.
Meanwhile in America
Part II

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
- Mark Twain

"We are going to Los Angeles." Greg Driver stared. "We're going to a con that lasts over a month." He continued to stare. "And you're driving us." He couldn't stare any longer.

"WHAT!?" The young man couldn't control himself. Dark-eyed Greg Driver patted his big coat once then glared over at the shorter (but by not much) and started to lecture him, "You can go on whatever adventure you want, but I need to say here and get a good education!"

"I don't know how to drive." Hope commented back bluntly, silver hair glinting in the snow.

"You're nineteen years old woman!"

"So?" Greg groaned and they still made their way to the school. Greg then frowned and went over the idea,

"Whoever heard of a con that lasts over a month?"

"I have, that's why we're going." Hope pulled out a map that Greg didn't recognize but saw the words 'B.M. Con.' labeled in big letters on the piece of paper.

"B.M..." He thought unpleasantly. Rook, a strange golem with a black wing and a feather on a large string of hair jumped on his mistress' hair and grinned a very creepy grin that Greg had been getting used to,

"For the Black Market." The man paled, and twitched when Hope put down the map and stared at Greg with strange sparkly eyes.

"It'll be the first con I could get into."

"That's the wrong thing to get puppy eyes for!" He argued, but the next thing he knew he was in front of his teacher who was clinging to Hope with a happy grin.

"So we'll be gone for a month teacher." Hope spoke with a smile one her face that Greg had little doubt she somehow managed to rehearse.

"Oh I see. Okay, please be safe."

"I never agreed!" The young man complained. The teacher on the other hand stared blankly at the other and commented bluntly,

"Hope can teach you everything you need to know in a month, s'why I'm letting her to take a lap-top." Greg stared, why was everyone he dealt with in this school crazy? "So take good care of Hope Greg..." Greg could definitely hear the underlying threat underneath her tone and just nodded, groaning again. The two then got into Greg's car and Greg started the long drive that Hope had managed to get his teacher to be dependant on his grade.

Four days later

Oh lord. Four days. Four fricking days. Of driving. Driving with a silent silver-haired woman and a creepy smiley golem that looked a lot like a faerie. They were almost there though, finally.

"I hope you plan on reimbursing me." Greg finally spoke, realizing how much gas his car had guzzled from four days of driving, and sleeping in the car didn't help either because some of the states were freezing and they kept the car on for the heater.

"Yes, but we made it so it's all good."

"Mistress don't forget about the challenge." Rook spoke from the back and Greg twitched.

"Challenge?"

"Yes, that's why we were able to come here, someone paid their way to challenge me." Hope spoke the truth and stared as they both exited off the car and started to walk into a hotel that Greg had never seen such a size.

"What the hell!?" Greg demanded, "So not only are you here for some suspicious con, you're also going to fight? And you had to drag me with you? I want a normal life woman!" He continued to yell at Hope, but the bright-eyed woman just ignored it for the major brunt.

"I told you before, you're my slave now, so it doesn't matter what you want to say." She stated her opinion. Said slave twitched and moved his fingers around angrily and he wanted to wrap them around the young woman's neck for just one second. The two then stopped, coming up to the door of the hotel, except there were two twin bodyguards in the way.

"Registration?"

"We don't have a room yet."

"What?" Greg looked over to Hope, his voice echoing with the strange bald-headed bodyguards. The one on the left started to reach out to her,

"Access denied, unless you want to pay with your body missy." Hope only stared at the hand momentarily and everyone jumped as she flipped the big man with a simple controlled flick of her arm. He landed with a big thud against the stairs that had led up to the hotel, the man was about to get up, cursing the existence of the woman when she sat on him and stamped his neck down, threatening the man not to move otherwise she'd deliver a fast and unpleasant move to the man's personal parts.

"I was invited here, so at the very least," she moved to grab the body-guards pitch black dark glasses and placed them on her face, "so be a good guy, an' let me in the hotel." Her glare was simple and pure.

"Y-Yes ma'am." The other bodyguard acknowledged the other as the top and saluted her.

"And hold my luggage while we get our room."

"Yes ma'am!"

'Scary.' Greg could only thing, at least until they got to their hotel room, a two bedder with a small kitchen in the back and a luxurious bathroom with a view of the large outdoor pool. Greg stared at the bed with happiness, 'A bed! A bed!' Hope took out her suitcase and spoke simply,

"Come on out Rook." The strange golem flew out and posed cheerfully,

"Morning Mistress! Are you going to tell Greg about his Kamasame (1)?" Hope hit her own hands together from the reminder as Greg lied happily down on his chosen bed.

"Oh that's right, I forgot."

"What's so important about weird sword?" He asked just for the sake of saying. Hope gave a loud sigh and started,

"That stick I told you to carry," he stared down at it, it was in his belt, "is the updated version of Kamasame. If you twist it it'll pop out to become a scythe, but if you just pull it out and swing it'll be the sword form. So now you owe me more because of the latest renditions." She stated plainly and spoke a little more about something else that Greg didn't really care about.

"I don't even really want to fight."

"The con won't actually be starting until tomorrow so I'm going to take a walk around."

"In Los Angeles?" The young man got up from his spot and stared, "Alone?"

"I won't be alone." She commented back, pointing to her golem who stuck his tongue out,

"She has me!"

"GOLEMS DON'T COUNT!" Five minutes later, Greg was dressed in the loosest dress he had packed and was walking next to Hope, gritting his teeth angrily, 'Arrrugh! How did I get stuck doing this? Stupid conscious.' So instead of complaining about that, he decided to bitch out about the conditions. "Ugh, the differences in temperature..." It was hot, at least compared to the coldness that they had gone through.

"You just sweat easily." Hope stated.

"And time difference...3 hours. There's also so many buildings all cluttered together."

"They're all just apartment buildings." They walked past a school, and Greg looked up. He stopped and Rook questioned,

"Why'd you stop?"

"Uh...that guy over there has some power." Greg pointed out a highschooler with dark orange hair glazing in the sun and he had dark brown eyes. Greg jumped as the stranger looked at him, the two stared in acknowledgement. There was a bit of dark tension as they both obviously felt a bit of domination battle just from the stares, but Greg had to break away with shock when Hope spoke simply,

"Who cares?" Rook laughed at his mistress' comment and the fact she kept moving.

"Aren't you interested?" He asked, following after the smaller woman.

"I wasn't interested in you, what makes you think I'd be interested in him?" Greg gritted his teeth angrily and glared,

"You know that bored attitude of yours pisses me off!" Hope hadn't been a normal girl, and Greg knew why. After a traumatizing experience with her grandmother, the girl managed to access into the strange world where they would sign a contract to gain powers. Greg had never known of this world until he met her, the most he had ever came across to powers was his own and two others.

"If you want to talk to him, go ahead." Hope spoke normally, looking back with her eyes only half-shaded by the glasses she yoinked from the bodyguard earlier. "Just be back at the hotel later." She advised him and Greg frowned. What would have been the point of him following her if he just went off to talk to the other guy? He was here to help protect herself!

"Be back, be back." Rook spoke from her shoulder.

"Well maybe I will!" He yelled back, stopping his yell when a knife ended up embedding itself in the stone ahead of Hope. The woman stared down and then grabbed the knife and started walking off.

"Hey! That's my knife bitch!" Greg frowned, stupid punk. He was about to instinctively stand up for the woman when she bent down and flew a kick straight to the punk's face.

"You shouldn't call anybody names, just say please." She lectured and Greg paled as more people came from the alleyway and started to look very much like they were going to gang-bang the girl in front of him. Greg ran up to Hope and Hope jumped a little when grabbed the girl in a knight in shiny armor style and ran off, yelling loudly to apologize to the gang.

"Sorry! She doesn't know how to communicate well! Let's go Hope!" The man continued running, noticing how light Hope felt in his grip and blushed slightly when they made it to a convenience store and set the light-haired girl down. Greg signed as they entered and then he focused in anger. 'Great, I can't find that guy now. Thanks so much Hope.'

"So genetic people can sense others, huh?" Rook spoke from Greg's grasp, he didn't let go from when they were together.

"Huh? Well there was this guy who said to me it's built in so we can protect ourselves." Rook nodded in consideration.

"That makes sense, like the wild." Greg frowned honestly,

"Though to be honest, Hope's the only one I've sensed bored. It's like...she's the same...but different." Greg twitched once again when he saw Rook's creepy smile emerge on his lips,

"She has that effect, doesn't she?"

"I guess." He awkwardly replied. Hope moved towards the dark-haired young man and pointed at the chips she picked up,

"Buy me these." The girl bluntly remarked.

"Yeah, yeah, reach for my wallet in my back pocket." He bluntly remarked and paled as he heard a familiar 'cock' of a gun and paled when a stranger pointed it to the back of Hope's head,

"And hand it over here."

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Both Greg and the convenient store clerk he was in front of yelled.

"Why did I pick today to go to work!?"

"Out of all of the stores in the world, we'd have to pick the one that would get robbed!" Despite their panicky remarks, Hope only looked back to the gun and for the first time, Greg witnessed a truly irritated stare upon her face.

"Guns are really starting to annoy me a bit..." She then turned to face the robber, "Rook." Rook jumped a bit in cheer and before Greg could register it, Hope had managed to get on top of the gun-totter and held his hands away from each other, the gun lying on the ground.

'What did Rook do with the bullet? Damn Hope's so fast, I didn't see what she did!'

"Call 911." Hope hissed and Greg frowned, seeing blood drip from her forehead and face. The convenient storeowner nodded and ran to the back. Hope knocked out the robber and walked up to Greg, leading him away, "Let's go, I may need to find a free clinic for this wound."

"Wait, what?" Greg let himself be led and Hope continued moving towards the streets, ignoring the fact her face kept bleeding.

"Don't worry, that guy's knocked out for at least one hour. I also put the gun on the register's plate if he needs it." Were all bored like this? Or was it just Hope? She was so strange. They had managed to make it to a free clinic that wasn't too far from their original place and met with a doctor quickly enough, and the doctor frowned. After a rough examination, he nodded,

"Yup, you definitely need stitches." Greg found himself unconsciously blushing from Hope's hair being tied back. He saw more of her delicate looking face, and...it was pretty.

"It felt like it, so go ahead and patch me up." Greg momentarily wondered how many times Hope had got a wound that resulted in patching it up with a set of stitches. How many white lined scars did the woman carry around her body?

"I'll need to check you in though, because I don't want to operate on your skull. It needs to be an overnight check in." Hope looked displeased, and the next movement Greg frowned as they bolted out of the clinic. They both ran back to the hotel, Hope's blood dripping a leading path for those who cared to follow. Greg collapsed on his bed, heaving a heavy sigh as Hope grabbed Rook carefully,

"You think you can do it Rook?"

"Of course," his confidence annoyed Greg for a moment, "but I don't have any anesthetic, so it'll hurt a normal person."

"That's fine." Greg turned over in confusion and felt his stomach quake as he watched Rook bring out some kind of black strips and started to stick it in the thick flesh of Hope's forehead.

"THAT'S DISGUSTING! Next time warn a guy dammit!" He yelled, pushing the two towards Hope's bed so he could make it to the large bathroom. When Greg exited the room, he stared over at the silver-haired girl who was cheering lightly to a Power Rangers episode that was on the television. He wiped his mouth sickeningly and looked at Rook who was taking off plastic blood gloves. "So you know medicine, huh?"

"Well...she hurts herself a lot so she created a studious brain for me." Rook remarked back, sighing lightly.

"Hey, that reminds me, what did you do back at the convenience store?" Realizing that Rook had did whatever it was the most, even if Hope somehow did get hurt in the process.

"I merely slowed the bullet by applying a stronger force to it. Mistress got caught up in the conflicting fissure while she attacked the guy." Rook replied. Hope then stood up from her bed, turning off the TV,

"Okay, time for challenge number one." Greg blinked and followed the young woman up to the hotel roof and stared with a frustrated blush when he saw a lady in almost transparent clothing.

"Nice to meet you Miss Hope. Words spread all around about you." Hope frowned,

"You...you're not bored. What are you doing here, I only take on bored." She bluntly spoke, frowning. Greg blinked, wondering how Hope knew.

"Oh no, you've caught me." The dark-haired woman grinned and pointed at Hope cheerfully, "The truth is I was sent from your inviter, he isn't anxious to fight you. After all, you even have a reputation in the underground world, so I've been hired to take you own Ms. Hope, ready?" She jumped slightly and Hope simply looked away when the stranger managed to get behind Hope, throwing down a finger to apply enough force that Hope felt her left arm paralyzed. "Though it doesn't matter if you are!"

"Paralysis?"

"Hah. Quick but not quick enough. Yes, I was born into a family that manipulates the nerves in the body." Hope simply looked over to Rook and twitched a visible eye. Rook blinked and grinned evilly,

"Greg, go interfere, Mistress is making a new item."

"What!? I can't even look at her!" He pointed at the near nude woman in front of him,

"GET TO WORK YOU STUPID TANK." The stranger flipped away as Greg swung his new stick, and it was created into the sword version of his weapon. She flipped around and frowned,

"I can't have any annoying pests interfering with my bounty." The woman moved and Greg twitched as she managed to make it behind him and delivered a swift strike to his skull.

"I wasn't aware there was a sensitive point in the skull." Hope spoke as Greg fell to the ground. He couldn't move, it seemed impossible to even twitch. His head was dizzy and glazy.

"Normally no, but you apply enough force in any spot of the body and it can at least cause a state of numbness." Numb? He was numb? Rook started laughing though, his chuckle cackling cheerfully in the air.

"One more chance, go away."

"Not when I'm winning." The dark-haired foreigner laughed only to shriek when Hope threw her right fist into the woman's face. "You...you bitch!" The woman then moved to paralyze the other arm and managed to make it, only to get hit in the face again, twisting her face until she hit the ground. Hope frowned and flexed her arm uncomfortably as the dark-haired stranger fell to the ground in surprise and pain. A few moments passed and Greg managed to struggle to get up, shaking in a numb vibration and moved towards Hope, looking down at the woman's face,

"You knocked her clean out." He stated, his mouth feel like a dentist put a Novocain in his gums. Hope nodded and Greg noticed something different about the woman's attire but made no remark, as Hope spoke,

"She'll wake up and warn her boss later, we may have to fight her again." Hope then looked straight into Greg's eyes, a determined stare, "Be ready tomorrow we're taking down a big time underground boss. Be ready to be a distraction."

'...Underground...Boss?' Like the kind that made offers he couldn't refuse? 'Oh God. What has Hope gotten me into?'

The Next Day

"I'm Ms. Hope and this is my plus one." What was he doing dressed in a hot mafia black suit next to a girl who was dressed in shorts, and a tang-top? Rook was in the girl's arms acting like a weird and twisted stuffed animal. It was hot. Unbearably hot.

"Ah yes, Ms. Hope. Here is your registration number, you need to go under Trial 8 while your friend should go under Trial 2." A normal man spoke that reminded Greg of a normal Con manager handing out badges, though he did not hand Hope a badge at all.

"Mind if I join?" He looked back and jumped in shock to see the strange orange-haired teen right behind them.

"H-How did you..."

"Hey there, I'm a plus two." A heart filled tone was in the stranger's smile. The man frantically frowned and started to complain when Hope glared,

"Do it, I have no time to care about someone who wants in this con or not. Let them in."

"Uh...okay...then plus two...go to Trial 1." The three moved forward and witnessed sets of eight doors with signs on them, all labeled plainly.

"Pass your trial Greg, or I'll add more to your slavery." Hope plainly spoke and he resisted the urge to hit the lady.

"By the way, I'm Koda, nice to meet you." The orange-haired teen spoke, giving his hand to the silver-haired girl. Hope just stared at the hand and stated bluntly,

"I could care less."

"Ahaha, you're a cold gal, huh?" Koda continued laughing, putting his hand down, and Greg twitched. Who the hell did this guy think he was? Why was he talking to Hope like that? He wasn't jealous though, he definitely wasn't jealous!

"Hey! Tell me how you found us!" He pointed angrily at the young teen.

"Oh?" Koda turned around and grinned a grin that creepily reminded Greg of Rook, "You don't know? Your signal is so loud I could track you across the USA."

'Signal? What the hell is he talking about?' Greg then jumped as Koda got unnecessarily close to Hope, tilting the girl's head up and commented,

"But your signal is the reason I came."

"What is so special about Hope's 'signal'?" Though he already knew the truth. He knew that something had been wrong with it before.

"Aren't you an adult? Should you be acting jealous of a high school student?"

"I'm not jealous!" Koda then shook his head, laughing at the older man.

"But you can sense it, can't you? She's normal, but at the same time she isn't, and really that just fascinates me." He just glared in response to Koda's truth,

"If you're finished talking, I want to get this Trial over with." Hope went through her door, and the men went to their respective doors as well. When Hope entered in her door a young man with a scar and wide eyes greeted her with a creepy smile.

"In order to enter in the con, you have to pass this trial. This particular level is you have to find the key in these poison vials." Hope spotted volumes of shelves with little vials stacked and put together. "You can only drink the vials, so choose wisely for you may find this as your last drink!" the man started to laugh hard in the air and Rook chuckled a little back.

"That's boring."

"So all I need to do is drink until I find a key?"

"That's right!"

"Then...I shall drink all of them." Hope bluntly smirked, and took the vials and chugged down the poison like it was nothing. The minion stopped, realizing quickly that Hope was indeed doing what was impossible. Hope stopped chugging and throwing vials and stuck out a black tongue with a small key on it.

"What the hell is this girl!?" The minion demanded in fear, and Hope just moved forward but then paused,

"Before I go," she hacked up the previous liquid in her body and spat on the ground, melting it with its vicious chemicals. "Take your poison back." Then she just walked through, meeting a merged building with light. Meanwhile with Greg he just walked through a darkened room and bumped into something solid. A voice spoke overhead and Greg frowned,

"If you can find me in this house of mirrors, I'll give you the key to go to the con...but there are many traps around, hahahaha." He sighed and took out his stick, twisting it as it grew in his grasp and turned into a scythe. A knowledge of a technique popped itself in his brain and he raised the scythe high, building up a fissure of wind and threw the pressure into mirrors he assumed were ahead, ignoring the shards that cut his face slightly,

"Sweeping Blow!" The young man then moved forward, seeing the victim with the key and thumped the scythe right in front of the man and between his legs. "Key?" Shakiningly Greg was handed the key and he exited the room, groaning at the sharp pain on his face.

"Good, you made it." Hope remarked and Koda was right besides her, smirking with a mocking expression on his face.

"Slow, aren't you?"

"Why aren't any of you hurt!?"

"Don't spew grown-up." Koda simply replied back and they both turned to Rook, who looked up from his Mistress' hair and spoke,

"We have about three hours to wander around so enjoy yourselves!"

"We'll just follow you then, since you seem to know where you're going." Folding his arms back, he followed the silver-haired maiden, and before long, through the crowds, Greg lost the two of them.

'I can't believe I lost them. That bastard better not be doing anything suspicious. Then again, why am I worrying? Hope can take care of herself...wish I could focus on 'signals' like Koda can it seems.' He continued to wander around, though taking off the top of his jacket and tying it around his waist. 'This whole thing yells 'TRAP, I mean, a Black Market Con?'

"Hello Ms. Hope's bodyguard!" Greg turned to the voice and jumped in surprise. In a more modest dressing was the stranger that Hope had knocked out the other day on the rooftop.

"You!"

"Aha, don't worry much. So did Ms. Hope survive?" Greg found he really didn't like the tone of the stranger's voice and growled out,

"Of course she did."

"What?" Her expression grew to shock and terror.

"Is that girl impossible to kill?" Her shock was apparent, "I mean that was the toughest trial!"

"What do you mean? I went in Trial 2 and it wasn't any big deal."

"Trial 8 in nothing but a death trap! You're supposed to drink a deadly poison to find a key, and there aren't any clues to where the key could be!"

"Seriously?" Greg shuddered, thinking of it. How many bottles had Hope drank before she found her key? "Maybe she is unkillable."

"I'm kinda scared and glad I survived now." Greg frowned slightly and then looked away, thinking a bit more bout Hope. He blushed in surprise to his sudden thoughts of how strong the girl seemed, and then grew angry. He shouldn't be thinking crap like this!

"ARRRGH! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU HOPE!?" He yelled out, hoping that the girl would find him through his yell. Of course the two were too far to actually hear the teen, but Koda peeked his interest, muttering normally,

"That guy's signal's pretty loud right now."

"What do you mean by 'loud'?" Rook questioned, giving a reason for Koda to form a strange look instead of his normal smirk.

"Well signals make subtle noise vibrations in our bodies."

"Ah, so you're a lot more competent than Greg." Rook complimented the orange-head and he just smiled in reply.

"He seems useless for you." Rook laughed,

"He is." Hope finally stopped and looked back to the younger but taller man and her expression was unreadable.

"Greg isn't useless, so don't say that. No life...is useless."

"Aha! So she speaks!" He wrapped an arm around the other, holding her close to him, "So the cold girl speaks with passion in her voice!" The next thing Koda drew in closer to Hope and whispered with a mad look in his eye, "Come on, tell me your power. I'm curious."

"Why?" Rook grew suspicious, frowning slightly. Koda looked down at the little golem and his smile shifted,

"This girl's signal is rather...irrational. It vibrates like a normal persons but then explodes like an unstable nuclear power." He explained. Hope broke out of his grasp, and placed her hands on the other's shoulders.

"That's nice, but I'm not going to tell you unless you'll agree to be my slave, and I won't be taking a slave that lives in a different state, much less someone who's still a high school student."

"You're underestimating me." He leaned over her.

"I don't care."

"Why don't we fight and make you care?" Hope turned around and noticed that Rook had accidentally fell from her shoulders and bent down to grab him,

"I don't fight normal people if I can help it." Red energy formed over Koda's fingers and he flew a small part of the energy pass Hope's face, alerting her that he was not as normal as she thought. Hope glared while Koda just smirked.

"Found you!" Greg came forward, interrupting the tense moment. He continued to move and twitched as he ended up tripping over Rook. He stared in terror as his face fell forward to Hope's with a loud smack. Right on Hope's lips. Hope seemed ignorant and wasn't affected by it at all as Greg fell backwards, 'Why God...why did you let such a thing happen to ruin my pure soul?'

"Rook are you okay?" Hope asked, ignoring the fallen meat-tank. He didn't get any chance of melting and sobbing when the strange foreign female came up in her dress,

"Hello again Ms. Hope."

"You're...?" Hope questioned, obviously not recognizing her.

"Oh yes, I forgot. Sorry. I'm Ming-Jun Nee, and please forgive me for leading a major boss to you." Ming-Jun Nee smiled sweetly and the trio blinked.

"Huh?" It was a creepy leading motion, as their eyes trailed up to see a huge man with a cigar foaming in his mouth,

"Hello Ms. Hope. I'm glad to meet you, not prepare to die." Guns cocked and Greg could only sobbed, grasping Hope in terror.

"HOPE WHY!? WHY!? How do you get us all into this trouble!?" During the fact she was being shaken, her words spilled out uneasily but came out with a light tone,

"You're the one who led Ming-Jun Nee here..."

To be continued...

End Volume II.

Character Profile 2: Izuru Tanaka
Date of Birth: July 18
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Boredom: Illusions (attacking the mind)
Absorption points: Five
Height: 5'9
Weight: 143 llb (Most of it is muscle)
Extra info: She has A LOT of money on the side just in case of emergencies but she never uses it because of D.J.'s wish pills and magic. She has to go to the bank to reaffirm that she is still alive and well but does everything she can so her uncle cant find her. Izuru's original sketch was that she was supposed to be Haruhane's mentor that you couldn't beat (she was supposed to be as tough as Izumi from FullMetal Alchemist) but that idea was changed. Also another fun act, her sketch was the beginning of BOREDOM, period.

Chapter VI. Notes
(1) Nee: A Japanese word for sister, or used to someone close to you that is female.
(2) Matrix: A Trilogy Sci-fi series that is most famous for its action scenes and the idea of our world being a world made up by robots in order for us to sustain their energy sources without a fuss.
(3) Conversation skills: Refer to Chapter IV. of Volume 1.
(4) Disciplinary Committee: In Japan, they have a student organization made of students who like to keep things in line, that help keep things in line with the students.
(5) Clean up Duty: In Japan, they assign cleaning duties to the students (if differs how it is assigned depending on the school or class)
(6) Bento: Japanese for Boxed Lunch.
(7) Yakuza: The Japanese equivalent to the mafia.
(8) Onigiri: A rice ball.
(9) Middle Schooler: Ganego is a middle schooler, and is attending the same school as Sarah because Haruhane knocked the school over, and Sarah doesn't know Ganego's schedule.
(10) 19:45: Military time for 7:45 PM.

Chapter VII. Notes
(1) Nii: A Japanese word for brother, or used to someone close to you that is a boy.
(2) Udon: Thick wheat-based noodle soup.
(3) Mochi: Rice cake made from rice and pounded into paste to be shaped.
(4) Ane: A respectful term for 'older sister'.
(5) Moshi Moshi: A greeting to one's telephone when answering.
(6) Cosplay: Is most often when you dress up as a person that isn't you (police outfit, cat outfit, etc).

Chapter VIII. Notes
(1) Important events: This is a reference to what they call 'cut scenes' in 'dating' games in Japan, but Izuru is ignorant to the way Toru implied it.
(2) Tou: Shortened from Otou which is father in Japanese.
(3) Shinigami: Literal translation is 'Death God' which is known as a reaper in the English language.
(4) Narc: Supposedly cop slang for the division that deals with drugs on the streets or any dealings.
(5) Turner Syndrome: It is a chromosomal disorder in which all or part of one of the sex chromosomes is absent (unaffected humans have 46 chromosomes, of which 2 are sex chromosomes). Typical females have 2 X chromosomes, but in Turner syndrome, one of those sex chromosomes is missing or has other abnormalities. In some cases, the missing chromosome is present in some cells but not others, a condition referred to as mosaicism.
(6) Song: At the end of Chapter II of Volume I, Izuru has a favorite song that Sarah listens to.

Chapter IX. Notes
(1) Red Light District: Also basically known as a 'downtown area' where the prostitution and drug deals are commonly dealt with.
(2) The Springs of Youth: This is a normal comment talking about younger people getting together for love, even teens that seem to hate each other.

Chapter X. Notes
(1) Kamasame: The Small Scythe Sword, Hope made it for Greg.