This beautiful day at school suddenly turned into one weird day unlike any other Sakura had experienced before. It started out so good, too; meeting a really cute boy and actually getting to talk to him was enough to make Sakura’s heart soar. While she walked down the peaceful street on her way home, she couldn’t think of anything but Hisoka’s adorable face as he slept through Psych class. There was more adorable to her than the face of a sleeping guy. She had known of him for quite some time, but this was the first close encounter with the red-headed wonder and she hoped there would be another, more pleasant encounter than the last, when he abruptly lost consciousness in the park.

Sakura couldn’t explain why or how Hisoka passed out the way he did, but she knew she felt something strange in the air. She didn’t know what he was thinking before she met him in the park, but when Kataki appeared around the corner, she knew something was wrong, very wrong. It was like she felt a black wind sweep through the bare trees around them, whispering words of unimaginable horror and fear. The look on his face at that moment appeared so unfamiliar, almost as if he was a totally different person and not her beloved brother. She knew Kataki still felt that Hisoka was to blame for the accident, but she didn't know how are deep his hatred went. Would he act upon that intense hatred and seek revenge, she didn't know. Whatever troubled him now must certainly have been because of the past, the past in which Hisoka had no memory of at all. If there was a connection between her brother and the things that were happening to Hisoka now, then she was determined to find out what it was.

As she walked down the street toward her small house in the suburbs of Tokyo, past rows and rows of bare cherry blossom trees, a chill breeze swept by her and nearly knocked her off her feet. The wind quickly died down and she picked up her pace once more.

Normally this 30 plus minute walk from school to home was a pleasant trip, a time she could have for herself, to really think things through. But with everything that has happened, that was the least thing she wanted to do. Every time she began thinking about Hisoka and tried to push his face from her mind, he only reappeared in her thoughts a few seconds later. Why was she having such a hard time forgetting about him or to even think of other, more important things besides a crazy and possibly very ill high school student? She really didn’t know him, so why did she feel so attached to him now? Why did she even care?

Setting all running thoughts in her head aside, she approached the crosswalk at the corner of the road. The sidewalk continued to the right, along a large, stone wall of a household obsessed with the ideals of privacy. She was almost home now. Only one more block and she could ask her brother all the questions about Hisoka she could ever think of.

She continued walking until another gust of wind blew by, making it considerably difficult to take only a few steps further. Then before she could take another step closer to the side of the road to cross, it was almost as if a body had dropped out of the sky as she and another fell to the ground. The wind that kept Sakura from reaching the crosswalk also flung an unwitting high school girl into her. Crumpled in a pile on the sidewalk floor, Sakura looked half dazed at the girl. She appeared to be about her age. She had long pink hair tied at the top with a blew bow, and as they both gathered their wits about them, Sakura realized that she knew her.

"Yukiko?"

Regaining her senses after plunging face first into the sidewalk, the girl looked up with a slightly reddened nose. "Sakura?"

"Yukiko," Sakura said, picking up her school back as she stood, "what are you doing here? You live clear on the other side of town!"

"I know, I know, but," she looked back down the other way, where the wind had pushed her into Sakura, "Mieko and I wanted to give you a surprise visit and see how exams went!"

"Mieko? …where?" Sakura looked back the way Yukiko had glanced, and then, sure enough, she saw a distressed girl with shoulder length green hair still clutched onto a telephone pole, safe and secure from the wild wind. "Hehee, look at her! She's nuts!" Sakura helped her school friend to stand.

"Yeah, you'd think she'd be more afraid of something tangible, but… heh, well, you said it. She's nuts!"

Sakura grinned, memories of grade school filling her thoughts. Back in third grade, she remembered Mieko crying floods of tears over nothing more than childhood daydreams. She kept telling them she saw these strange people all the time, anywhere and everywhere she went, even at school. No one believed her, though, but even to this day, minor things that a strong gust of wind still spooks her to death. "Isn't she ever going to grow out of this?"

"Don't know," Yukiko replied, beginning to walk back to her friend death-gripping the telephone pole.

Following her pink-haired friend, Sakura said, "If she grips that thing any tighter, she'll probably start complaining about hearing voices, too!"

"Heh heh, yeah. I wish I had my camera with me. This would be one to put in the archives!"

"Heeheehee! Shhh! She's gonna hear you! There's nothing worse than a freaked out Mieko…except an angry, freaked out Mieko!"

Suddenly, the girl giving the telephone pole a great bearhug, raised her head to the sky and let out the most ear-piercing scream they had ever heard. Instinctively covering their ears with their hands, they looked at each other, perplexed.

Yukiko sighed as she said, "Let's shut her up before the police come and take her away!"

They quickly ran the rest of the way to the side of their friend, who still punched out the loudest scream, her eyes tightly closed. Gently nudging her shoulder, Yukiko called her name, "Mieko!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" The girl with sea-green hair jumped from the touch on her shoulder and drew back. Timidly peeking through her two arms wrapped around her head like a little child, she saw her two friends giggling at her. "Wha-what? What? What what what what what?? Did….. Did you do that?" she looked at Yukiko.

Shrugging, all Yukiko could do was laugh. Sakura watched on as her friend's face turned red, both with embarrassment and friendly-like anger.

"Y-you did! What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?"
"Oh, Mieko, your shadow would give you a heart attack…"

Blinking back her fear, she replied, "…So…"

"Heehee, it's ok, Mieko. Everything's okay," Sakura told her reassuringly. "It was just the wind."

"Sakura? How did you get here?" Mieko asked, confused.

"Um, I was walking home from school…"

Finding fault with her answer as always, Yukiko looked at Sakura, "But school's been over for almost two hours now." Then with a sudden though, she grinned. "You got a detention!"

"No! I did not get a detention!"

"Then what were you doing?"

"Oh, well, I was just coming back from…an old friend's house." Her glance turned away from the two classmates. "I'd…rather not talk about it right now, if that's alright."

Grinning again, Yukiko giggled. "You met somebody, didn't you? Didn't you?"

Sakura turned away, not wishing to answer that question, at least not now.

"Oh, c'mon, Sakura!" Mieko scolded her. "We're your friends. You can tell us anything."

"I know… You're my best two buds, but… I just don't want to talk about it. Can we just leave it at that for now? Please?"

"Ohh… alright…" Yukiko said, displeased. "It's no fun though…"

"You know that if anything's the matter, you can tell us, okay?" Mieko said with a gentle smile.

Nodding, Sakura returned the smile. "So, anyway, why'd you guys decide to come all the way over here?"

"No particular reason, really. We were just bored and wondered what you were up to," Yukiko said.

"We assumed you'd be home by now, but where--"

"--SO…" Sakura cut in, not wanting to go down that road once again. "What do you guys want to do? I was just going to talk with my brother a little bit, but I guess it can wait a little longer."

Frowning, Yukiko looked at Sakura. "You're brother? What do you have to talk to your brother for?"

"What? Can't I have a normal conversation with my brother? It's perfectly normal. We're like twins, anyway. You guys should know that. We always share things with each other."

"Ohh, just seemed weird, that's all," Yukiko added. "I'd never willing talk with my younger brother. He's worse to have under your skin than a tick! I'd be glad to kindly have another family have him, just take him away!"

"Heehee," Mieko giggled. "You don't know what you have, girl! I don't have any siblings, so I end up talking with myself for the lack of someone to converse with."
Teasingly, Yukiko poked her friend's arm. "Ooh, yeah… That's gotta be bad, huh?"

"Stop poking me!"

Sakura laughed, rolling her eyes. "You guys really are crazy. But, listen… I'm really kinda tired, and I'd like to rest up for a little bit. Why don't I call you later and see if you wanna do something, okay?"

"Oh, brushing us off again, huh?" Yukiko said jokingly.

Laughing to hide her frustration, Sakura added, looking down the road, "No, of course not, but I really should get home at least for a little while. I didn't tell my mom that I was going elsewhere after school. It was kinda sudden, so I didn't get a chance to let her know. She'll be worried if I don't show up soon."

The same old excuse. Yukiko turned to Mieko and giggled with her head up high and her hands clenched tightly at her chest. "But Mommy will be worried about me!! Hahaha, get a grip, Sakura! Your parents don't give a rip where you go."

Taken aback by the sudden comment about her parents, Sakura didn't know what to say. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Yuki--" Mieko pulled on her friend's arm, trying to get her to stop talking like an angry old lady.

"You know what I mean. It's obvious, don't you think? Just look at how your father treats your brother! Don't you think it's a little abnormal to be pushing a crippled kid to continue with sports? He's living his own fantasies through Kataki, and you know it. You know the damage it's causing. All of us see that."

Sakura had been staring straight into Yukiko's reddish-pink eyes all the time she spoke about her family. She felt as if she couldn't break the glance even if she tried. Yukiko had always been the aggressive, down to earth type of person and she was never afraid to let people know how she felt, even if her words were like piercing a dagger through the heart. She didn't want to listen to her friend's hurtful words, but she couldn't stop her from speaking them either. All she could do was endure them for now and forget them later, as she had always done before.

"Yukiko, that's enough," Mieko said, frowning at the pink-haired girl. "We came down here to have fun, not to set another emotional breakdown in motion."

The hot-tempered girl looked back at Mieko and realized that she was right. No matter what she said to Sakura, nothing would change. The only thing that came from her continuous probe of words was Sakura's worn-down emotional state. Even though she meant the best, it seemed that nothing good ever came from her spontaneous interjections.

"You're right," she said, her face softening. "I'm sorry, Sakura. You know me… Always the loud-mouth…"

Forcing out a smile, Sakura looked back at her friend. "I know. It's all right, but I really gotta go now, okay?" She turn away without looking back or saying goodbye. They knew how much her family meant to her, so why did they have to constantly interrogate her about their so-called misdeeds to her brother and she? As she crossed the road, she knew her parents would be all she could think about now, and she thought if only she could think of other things… This would be the perfect time for the image of the school boy to re-emerge in her mind, to cloud out all the hurtful words and accusations about those she loved. No matter how many times she heard them, she would not believe them to be true. Never.

"One more block…" she sighed, approaching the next cross road. She was surprised that there weren't many people out walking or driving by, but she supposed everyone else was still at work or at the other schools around town. Then as she began to near the road, she saw a cute little squirrel gathering little scraps of food on the other side of the road. He was so adorable! Sakura smiled as she watched it scurry around the bushes and cherry trees as it finally found a piece of food. It stuffed the morsel into its pouches, and started running in her direction. Then while the animal was halfway across the road, a speeding car whizzed by and crushed the animal mercilessly under its wheels. Shocked far beyond imagination, Sakura stood frozen at the curb, unable to move any further. The car continued down the road without ever slowing down as it left the undistinguishable corpse of the squirrel lying hideously in the middle of the road.

"How horrible…" She tried not to look at the pile of red, but her eyes kept straying toward it even after she looked away. She turned back to cross the other road, making a detour to avoid walking past the dead animal in the road. "Why can't this day just end…?"

**********

Within the grip of the unearthly demon, Hisoka stared at the dagger now plunged deep into his chest. He felt whatever remaining strength he had seep from his tortured body. He thought it would be all too easy to simply close his eyes and escape the searing pang of hopelessness and death, but then his anger flared and he vowed to himself that he would not give up. Not without a decent, fair fight.

Ignoring the dagger in his chest, Hisoka looked up to the demon holding him over the ledge. Although he was growing increasingly weak by the moment, it seemed as if his senses were as clear and precise as they had ever been. As he looked at the monster before him, he saw something in his face that struck fear into his heart. The demon's face was clean, yet his hair was a mess, resembling a heap of hay. There were no scars or signs of battle on his face or arms, but there was one thing that seemed to stick out in Hisoka's mind: the demon's eyes! People say that the eyes are the gateway to the soul and this realization frightened him. As Hisoka peered more deeply into these spheres of red, he didn't find the soul of something unfamiliar or unknown to him, but what he found there he felt he knew somehow. He felt the beast's anger and hatred pouring from his eyes, he saw the hatred and fear others had for him, he saw rows and rows of innocents slain for no reason at all, and worst of all, he saw his own death unfolding within those eyes. Fighting to keep a hold of himself, Hisoka violently turned his face away.

"What's that matter? Find something you lost?" the demon grinned.

Hisoka couldn't listen to the beast's words any more. If he did, he knew he would lose this battle, his life. Again he felt the swarm of heat well up inside of him, commanding him not to give up. He forgot about all his severe wounds, he forgot about the fear the gripped his soul tighter than the demons hold on his arm, he forgot about his life outside of this world. All he knew was his life was threatened by this monster and he must escape or fight to the death, although he was favoring the idea of escape above a wicked battle.

Instantly his senses opened up a though, a route for escape. He thought back to what the beast told him earlier about this demonic landscape. The creature before him willingly told him that this was a dream of Hisoka's own creation, that he was, in essence, killing himself. If that were true, then the boundaries of the natural world could be bent, even broken. Hisoka had a plan, but he would have to anger the demon a little more for it to work…

"You damn bastard… You think you know everything, don't you?" Hisoka said, his head hanging low, nearly touching the hilt of the dagger still gouged through his chest.

Tilting his head curiously, the demon replied, "Oh? And you know something now?"

Hisoka shot a deadly glance of hatred into the monster's squinting eyes. "More than you realize."

"You think you can insult me with your arrogance, but it will only end in your own downfall." Chuckling softly to himself, he looked down, beyond the edge of the cliff where he stood. "Kinda ironic, don't you think? Your downfall will be by falling from this cliff. Hahaha, I love a good taste of irony!"

"Then why don't you drop me already?" Hisoka added rapidly after the monster's comment. "If you love sudden twists, then you'll be more than satisfied with the outcome. Or are you too afraid of the shock it may cause you?"

The demon frowned darkly and spat, "You are stupid, boy. I am not afraid to do anything that would in turn destroy your life!"

"Then prove it. Drop me."

Throwing the idea around in his head, the demon grinned. "If you so wish to great Death in person, then by all means, be my guest." Instantly the pressure exerted by the demon's grip around Hisoka's wrist melted away as he simply released the boy's arm.

With the wind blowing through his hair and all around him, Hisoka closed his eyes and fought to keep panic under control. He only had a few moments to carry out his plan, if it worked at all. Whether it did or not, he would soon know as the ground below rushed forward to great him.