It was a particular day, just after twilight, when Miss Yakimura left with Yamasaki in an autumn love affair to the fireworks. It had been about a month or so since Yuri had overheard Chikai's conversation with the laundry boy. As one might expect, she was still on edge. Loire walked the halls curiously at his own risk, scanning the emptiness for children who had slipped away from dinner. Yuri of course, at the time, had been unfortunate enough to talk back to the headmistress during more than one occasion. She was left to scrub the stairs climbing from the kitchen to the upper portion of the house in silent bliss. The smell of potatoes and tomato soup scurried their way up the corridor and taunted her carelessly.

"Potatoes...tomato soup..." She said quietly to herself as her scrubbing rubbed many sore blisters on her palms. "I'm starving. I haven't eaten all day..maybe I could.." Her voice trailed off. No, she couldn't sum up the courage to swipe a boiled potato from the kitchen. She decided to more or less leave it for one of the older girls who had been cooking all day.

Yuri could see the mustached man walking about the hallway back to the dining room from her position at the top of the stairs. Everything was eerily silent for a moment until car headlights shined brightly through the window, catching her eye. At first, Yuri figured it was more or less Yakimura and Yamasaki returning from their affair. However, when the car doors slammed and the faint murmurs of males echoed from outside, her eyes began to widen in realization.

Running for the window, Yuri laid her eyes upon three unsuspecting males and the laundry truck's logo once again. She sank deep into the floor as she covered her ears in terror. Hikari was walking down bellow, gripping a bucket of water in her hand as she hummed softly.

"Yuri? What are you doing all the way up there? I thought you were cleaning the stairs." Hikari called, and, snapping out of her nervous state, Yuri pulled her hands away and glanced back down at Hikari.

"I'm sorry, Hikari.." She said quietly. "I was distracted is all," Yuri replied and stood back to her feet, pulling herself down the steps with a brief sigh. "I just...it's a little early for laundry, isn't it?" She laughed a bit.

Hikari brushed back her hair and giggled in response. "I'm not sure, maybe Mr. Loire wants the tablecloths clean for a certain occasion?" She retorted.

Yuri sighed and fumbled with her braids, glancing up at the ceiling. "Maybe..." A sense of anxiety in her voice, Hikari attempted to soothe it.

"Hey Yuri, don't worry about it, m'kay?" She sighed. "I know you've been on edge lately. I hear you talk a lot while you sleep...I'm worried for you. Just stay calm and things will take care of themselves. Now I gotta go, you keep up with those chores, kay? Yakimura will go berserk if you don't!"

With that, Hikari faded off into the many halls of the house. Yuri stood at the top of the stairs and glanced back out the window to the truck, shaking her head in displeasure. "Everything's fine...they're probably in the bathroom again.." She tried reassuring herself, a pit of agony in her stomach. "Doing things...they shouldn't be doing...those things mam told me not to do...to stay away from..."

Scraping her knees raw and ripping through her stockings, Yuri spent a good twenty minutes on the stairs before the subtle realization Hikari never returned back the way she came. Sure, it was slightly weird. Then again, Yuri wondered if she was filling out a form of sorts for Yakimura before December arrived. Either way, the fleeting pit of despair in her belly rose again, and she rose to her feet with the bucket. "I'll put this up and go back to the kitchen to find her," she reassured herself before shakily stumbling down the steps.

Her chest hurt painfully; it ached so terribly that Yuri began to wonder if she had heart issues awaiting her future. Nevertheless, she continued on down the steps and past the banister. She wandered down the corridor to the door where the basement resided, and, a heavy heart, she turned the knob. Dragging the cleaning supplies behind her (which was no more than a bucket full of grotesque water and a towel), Yuri trampled down the basement stairs with a sigh.

Yet, had she known what would be awaiting her, Yuri would've certainly turned back. Hikari never returned back to the kitchen; the laundry boys never returned to the bathroom, either. For the night before, Chikai was missing from her bed when the moon set itself high into the sky. She climbed from the window just outside of the attic and advantaged the fire escape, climbing into the alleyway separating the two houses together. Chikai ran from the gate and joined the laundry boys in the truck, and, having swiped a ring of keys from Yakimura's desk, began to plot the murder of Hikari Owari.

Yuri gripped tightly to the bucket now, closing the door behind her as the sounds of struggling came from deeper in the basement. Her eyes grew wide at the noises, to which some Yuri recognized as Hikari's voice. "H-Hikari..?" Yuri whispered softly, forcing herself down the steps in a quiet manner.

"Fake ass bitch ass slut!" Chikai called, laughing loudly as Yuri covered her mouth. Mustering up courage, she glanced from behind the wall and could see a violent sight.

Hikari was lying on the floor, blood spewing like the juice of a cherry from her head. Yuri could feel vomit rushing up her throat. Her clothes were torn, and, there, standing above her, were the laundry boys and Chikai. Hikari was half dead it seemed, and her eyes blinked coldly at the sight. Yuri was unable to tell if Hikari could see her or not, and continued to hide behind the steps.

"I bet we could pass this motherfucker off for a Korean, huh? Look at her! Military guys would love a nice fuck, huh?" A voice taunted as they yanked Hikari from the floor, causing her to scream loudly.

"Stop it stop it please!" She pleaded as Chikai ran her hands across Hikari's body, causing another swarm of tears. "Please Chikai, please!"

Yuri covered her ears as she felt tears streaming down her face. Hikari's pleas tug terribly at her heart. Yet, despite her wishes to stand about and stop Hikari's attackers, she stayed utterly silent.

"No, she's not worth our time. Now listen here, filthy wanker, you saw me take the money from Yakimura's drawer didn't you? How much else do you know? Do you wanna live or die?" He said, brushing up a machete to her throat. Hikari fought through her desperate tears with a traumatic face, panting heavily as the boy pushed farther on her.

"I-I swear I wasn't going to tell anyone! I wasn't going to tell Yakimura you stole from her! I swear I swear!" She screamed, Yuri frozen in place on the stairs.

"How about I cut that little throat of yours open for being such a naughty little eavesdropper?" He replied in a low, gruff tone. "Unless of course you'd prefer to give me a taste of the same body you give to Yamasaki all the time. How would you like that, huh?"

"N-no! Please! Please stop I won't tell! I won't tell!" She screamed louder as the machete was tossed aside.

"Let's fuck her up, this'll be a joyride," Yuzuru backed away, offering Hikari to the two other males in the back of the room. Yuri couldn't bear to watch the sight, more or less hear the entire situation. She was frozen in fear, locked in the terrifying present. Though her ears covered most of the noises, Yuri could still hear Hikari struggle, hear her scream and plead as her dignity was stripped away from her.

Yuri's cries were mute and unheard of compared to the shouting and crying coming from the basement. Over and over again, among the sounds of pants and laughing, Yuri could hear Hikari scream for her father.

"Hey! Hurry it up! They're back!" Chikai shouted a few moments later from the edge of the basememt door, watching headlights stream in from the window. Turning back, Yuri could see Yuzuru drop Hikari on the floor and raise up the machete through the shadow. Hikari let out a screech from her half naked corpse as Yuzuru slammed the weapon into her chest. Blood smeared the walls and floors, drenching all it touched.

It was undoubtedly the first time Yuri witnessed a murder; her body scrambled up the stairs again, Hikari screaming for help as she choked on her own blood. The bucket full of water fell down the steps and crashed at the bottom with a loud crashing noise. Chikai caught immediate attention and shot an eye towards the door behind the stairs.

"C'mon we gotta get out of here," Yuzuru said, pulling his girlfriend by the arm. However, Chikai jerked her arm back and thrusted herself towards the steps.

"I think someone was listening...!" She shouted, the other boys scrambling out the door.

"Shit!" Yuzuru hollered before darting out the opposing door into the outside alleyway. Chikai darted up the stairs where the door was left wide open at the top, swinging back and forth. Yuri, completely ridden in terror, darted down the halls with tears streaming down her face in an hysterical manner. Throwing herself into the bathroom, she locked the doors as her body shook violently in terror. She sank to the floor and hugged her legs tightly.

Hikari was dead; her barely recognizable corpse lied dense on the basement floor with blood spewing down the walls and beneath her. She was completely disfigured and unrecognizable in the face, her bright eyes faded into oblivion. Part of her insides were scattered among the floor; it reeked like blood, lots of blood.

Chikai raced down the hall, following a fading trail of wet footprints on the floor as the sounds of Yamasaki and Yakimura arriving boomed in the foyer. She was clueless to the fact that Yuri indeed had seen and heard the murder, and was left with no suspects to the witness.

Yuri sat on the bathroom floor against one of the doors, sobbing uncontrollably at the thought. Her eyes ached terribly, and regret and shame came over her as she rubbed her eyes. It was strange how Hikari had been smiling at her only hours before, and was now lying motionless on the floor with blood spraying from her wounds. Yuri couldn't fathom the idea, and, as she buried her woes in her knees, felt an overwhelmingly depressive aura fall over her.

It must've been hours that Yuri was in there; the bathroom was still cold and silent, and she was choking on her tears in one of the stalls. Yuri'd vomited her stomach empty, sickishly replaying Hikari's blood splattering across the walls through her head. Her emotions were a swirl as she emptied her stomach again; it was already empty, though. It seemed as if she was releasing nothing.

Dread, guilt, and shame began to flood in. Part of Yuri asked herself why she had cared about Hikari so much. She began to recall the first night they met, and all the moments in between. She was the girl who offered Yuri her first meal of rice pudding and cabbage soup; the girl who clothed Yuri with her old clothes from youth. Hikari was affectionate towards Yuri in their short lived, seemingly, sisterhood.

In the bathroom stall, she started to drift her thoughts back to Christmas. Miss Yakimura had bought many a fabric for the girls throughout the house, which at the time was overflowing with orphans. The material was a little itchy to say the least, but in the frigid Japanese winter, anything was better than nothing.

Oh how Yuri recalled; Hikari took her upstairs in a special fondness for her and pulled a trunk from beneath her bed. Yuri stared at it in fascination before the young woman of seventeen revealed a soft shaded pink fabric.

"This was the last thing I bought from Ise," she explained, pulling the delicate little thing from beneath her summer clothes. "I was ten or so...I swiped a bit of my pa's money before I ran away to buy myself something really nice for my journey."

Yuri watched Hikari lace her fingers about the material, glancing at her soft blue eyes for a moment. "I went to one of those fabric stores on the street near where we lived at the time. There was an old woman at the counter and I wandered around all the fabrics. I think I said something about them all being far too dreary, so she invited me over."

Sighing a bit, Hikari glanced to Yuri. "She said something like, 'bless me child! Had I known all these fabrics would be as dreary as the winter season to youth, I would've put this out sooner!' I think." Hikari looked at Yuri, who laughed a little at this. "So she opened a little itty, bitty, tiny door beneath the counter and pulled this out. She only charged me one yen, and after that I went off!"

Yuri remembered covering her mouth before Hikari went on. "What you said about all this fabric Yakimura bought being so cheerless...I wanted to give some of this to you," she smiled. "Fetch me a pair of scissors, will you? I'll cut you off a little square,"

That December night, Yuri remembered sitting beside Hikari as she snipped away at the treasured fabric. She gifted her a small square of it, and Yuri recalled putting it in her suitcase.

After that, Yuri's mind slowly returned to reality. Her tears had caused her so much pain and trouble that she could barely see what rested before her. Her knees were burning from the raw, exposed flesh. Somehow, thinking of those cold nights made Yuri even sicker. It was a passive moment when the started thinking of hours before.

Dread began to sink in far worse, and Yuri felt as though she was back on the stairs. She and Hikari weren't all that great friends, but the young woman was far kinder to her than the others. She began to wonder why she had decided to search for Hikari. A different scenario would have played out, then. Yuri could have went into the kitchen and stolen that boiled potato. She could've been selfish for a change and eat another girl's meal. Yet, she didn't. Yuri questioned herself at this as she wept in great sorrow.

Why had it been Hikari? Why had death struck Yuri's life again? Memories of her mother began to sink into her mind, photographs of the woman, her last days with her. Somehow, the pain in her stomach was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.