Yuri sank beneath the ice; for a brief moment she hadn't the slightest idea of what had happened, after all, slipping through the ice had never happened until this point for her. Everything was blurry except the small rays of light shining through the iridescent cracks, and, as she heard one occasion, she tried following the bubbles but could do nothing but cry at her miserable failure. It felt as though a thousand needles struck her at once, and the pain was so immense it hurt her gravely.

Her mind began drifting though; it was exceptionally peaceful to her surprise, despite the fact that the darkness petrified her. When Yuri closed her eyes as though death was waiting, she felt no different than as though she was laying in her bed, falling asleep into the dreamiest of dreams. Maybe she would dream of her mother, or maybe the man with eyes the color of the sun.

However, Tseng was swift to cross the ice in a careless manner to reach her; there was a gaping hole where she'd stood, and part of him disclosed Yuri's fate as merely being karma at her terrible behavior beforehand, her yelling and disrespect. The tranquil, transparent floor cracked behind him as he darted over to the seamless ice; Yuri had bubbles drifting up to the surface, and the water was the darkest shade of night Tseng had ever seen.

Yuri was bathed in silence; she sank closer and closer to the bottom of the lake as she began to struggle to keep her breath held. When Tseng thrusted his hands into the water to pull her out back into the warmth of the sun, he yelped loudly at the sensation of needles digging ito his flesh. What felt as though a century was a matter of seconds before he pulled her from the water by the arms, draping her ghost white corpse across the ever changing, treacherous ice.

"D-dammit!" He shouted, feeling bits of it release beneath his feet. "You stupid girl! We're both going to drown! It can't hold our weight!" Tseng shouted as he pulled her out from the depths of despair and back into the gruesome world Yuri began to dread terribly.

She was shaking and shivering, coughing out bits of the ice-cold, frigid lake. He dragged her across the ice and towards the bank, her shrill body trembling at the contact of the freezing clothes and winter air. By the grace of God, the lake hadn't swallowed them; at least, Yuri believed it was a miracle attributed to God, or maybe her mother. Upon their arrival, Tseng dropped Yuri into the snow and slipped his coat from his arms.

"We best get you inside before you freeze," he explained. "Hypothermia will catch up to you if we arrive back at the house too late," Yuri continued to be resilient, however, much less than before, as she allowed the man to wrap her in the warmth of his jacket. He lifted her up and was quite surprised at her weight as he began to carry her back up the snowscape.

"Such a careless girl. Hasn't anyone ever told you to stay off black ice?" Tseng explained, locks of his hair blowing in the wind. "You must've lost your brain in your foolery."

Yuri's teeth were chattering; she was far too cold to reply to this, and, even when placed in the dreaded infirmary of the house, she still gave no response. A woman bathed her in a warm bath, and gave her a fresh set of dry clothes in return to the wet ones hanging on the line. She made sure Yuri was given a warm bed, though one in the lower regions of the house in the so called "infirmary" Hikari had mentioned several times before. Aside from another young girl, one no more than twelve who must've contracted influenza, and seemed as though she was verging on death, Yuri was alone.

It must've been an hour or so before she could see Tseng speaking with Yakimura outside the door in the infirmary. There were glass windows peaking out of the top, lit up by little candles on a shelf. She worried very dearly of this, and it wasn't until Yakimura came in and stared at her for a moment before slapping her cheek that she began to understand.

"You, being resilient to an officer? Hatori! Where are your manners? Haven't you the slightest idea of the seriousness of this?! A girl was raped and murdered downstairs and you quite simply don't give a damn about anyone but yourself!" She screeched. This caused Yuri to hold her cheek and cry, after all, she felt weak everywhere else, it was only natural for her face to begin to express how she felt on the inside.

"Stupid, so stupid, how dare you?" Yakimura had a sense of fury in her tone, and this petrified Yuri greatly.

"Chikai!" She sobbed, burying her face into her knees. She bit her lips in pain as Yakimura clicked her tongue. "It was Chikai, headmistress I swear! I swear on all that is pure and all that is holy that she did it to Hikari..!" Yuri wailed, a complete and utter mess.

"Laying the blame, how childish of you. Too damn egoistic to rise to the reality of the situation. I'll see Mr. Murakami out, and as for you, I'll see you to your room. For this you're forbidden, and I mean forbidden, from our wintertime church services. I'd be wrong if I said I didn't see the devil in you, Hatori. Raised on money, I bet. Spoiled as an apple with a rotten core,"

Yuri had enough of things like this; it only took her a moment before she screamed out a reply, one that would change a great deal of things.

"S-shut up! No one here understands anything! Y-you stupid woman y-you don't know anything so stop assuming you do! I hate this place and I hate all of you! I-I want you to be quiet!! Be quiet!!" Yuri screamed out. It was an out of body experience for her, because after she'd realized what she'd done, Yakimura already yanked her from the bed and began dragging her corpse down the hall.

Yuri began kicking and screaming; it hurt terribly, especially when the woman pulled her up the steps. Yuri was flopping her legs like a noodle and screeching for help from any of the girls spectating at the foot of the banister in curiosity of the situation. It was so violent and so morbid that none of them dare blink an eye to what Yakimura had done.

"You stupid, wicked girl! You dare talk back to your superior like that!" Yakimura screamed loudly as she threw Yuri into the attic bedroom. "You better be lucky I'm not lashing your legs! For that you're going to stay here you filthy sinner! I think you'll have a lovely time starving to death and rotting in the bowls of hell with the other meadows of souls burning for their lies and deception! May God have mercy on your soul, Hatori," Yakimura growled wickedly before slamming the door shut and locking it up with her key.

Yuri's nails dug into the wood as she panted heavily; her knees were bleeding blood right down her leg, seeping and standing the hardwoods. She collapsed into a ball, feeling as though she was half dead from the pain.

There was no firewood in the fireplace, rather, just a few sticks left from the former night's burn. The ice on the windows seemed to be crawling its way into the room; Yuri realized she would freeze into the afterlife if she dare tried sleeping without some sort of heat.

"M-mama..." She sputtered, choking through her tears and stumbling over to her dresser. Yuri began pulling things out and throwing them to the floor, though there certainly wasn't very much. Yuri contributed her finding of a set of matches to the mercy of God, and, especially to her mother. As she stumbled back over to the fireplace, she began to pull a few pieces of fabric sitting in a little bin beside it and arrange them neatly. She struck up a match and tried lighting the fire, praying to her mother once more beneath her breath.

"I-I'm gonna freeze up here..." She sputtered, watching her breath arc across the ceiling. "G-God...I'm gonna d-die..." She whispered quietly, shaking and shivering as she crawled into her bed to conserve heat. Yuri tried desperately to keep her eyes open, however, fate was calling, and she drifted into her dreams.

Had Yuri known of what was to come, she wouldn't have ran down to the lake that day; she wouldn't have run from the man in the black trench coat, or yelled a slur of desperate pleas to Akiko Yakimura. Oh if only she knew that, as she laid in the bed of the infirmary, spilling her secrets to the headmistress, that there had been a third person listening intently to the situation, Yuri wouldn't have fallen asleep.

Chikai knew now; she knew Yuri had been the unwelcome guest during the murder of Hikari Owari. She also knew that her lie would only carry her so far, after all, simply blaming it on Yamasaki would only hold its authenticity for a little while. You see, she became quite numb to her feelings, and the feelings of murder. When night fell, she would sneak from the house to go out with her dear friends, mugging prostitutes off the street of Kyoto and stealing their nightly earnings. She would watch and even participate in their rape and often murder. Her hands were stained with the grain of sin.

Karlheinz knew of Chikai, he knew what she conspired to do to Yuri the moment the house would be empty. He'd been planning it for months, and, should everything go the way he had initially plotted, the remaining puzzle pieces would fall like the winter snowstorm into their allotted slots. Chikai too, the moment she had found out Yuri was the girl lurking on the steps, knew very well what she needed to do.

It was ten o'clock or so that night when Yakimura departed from the estate with all of the young women whose eighteenth year had arrived. Yamasaki was currently being held in custody after Chikai had done and lay blame on him for the murder of Hikari, so, aside from Loire (who was fancying himself with a woman he'd picked off the street in his office), the house was practically empty. Sure, a few staff members remained, but for the most part, things were as still as ice.

Yuri was wrapped up in her blankets in her room, the flames of the fireplace warming up the otherwise frigid conditions she was trapped in. She didn't know how, but Christmas week had come all too soon, but this year, there was no tree, no presents, and certainly no feast of rice pudding and cabbage soup.

Rather, the snow continued to pour down outside and bury the house in its powder. By the time it had reached two or so in the morning, the same familiar lights Yuri'd known pulled up the gateway towards the estate. Chikai had telephoned those laundry boys no later than eleven that night, whispering from the closet of Yakimura's office the truth of Hatori and began to plot her very own sinister fate, one far worse and terrible than Hikari Owari.

The mustached man hadn't seen Chikai leave Yakimura's office, as he was still with the prostitute from the street corner, doing as he pleased with the woman for a fair sum. When Chikai returned to the cleaned crime scene in the basement, heading towards the back door, Yuzuru and his male friends stood beside him.

"So where the hell is she?" Yuzuru tapped his foot, his arms stood akimbo as Chikai let them in from the fresh powered snow.

"The old bitch locked her up, she's in our room," Chikai explained as Yuzuru and the others stepped foot into the house once more. One of his friends, the tallest one measuring no more than six feet, was gripping a baseball bat in his hand, plopping it back and forth against his shoulder.

"All I damned, let's get her before she rats us out. Where's that old wanker?" The one with the bat said, a displeased expression on his face.

Chikai began to fumble with a loop of keys in her apron, sighing a bit. "He's in his room, fucking a prostitute," she began to lead them up the stairs with a slightly sinister grin. Her sadistic tendencies would be awaken in a few moments.

"You sure he won't hear?"

She quickly nodded in response; if only the mustached man hadn't turned his volume loud on his player, or gave the moans of the woman he was busy with the utmost attention and importance. Only then he would've heard the terrible noises coming from the attic room, and Yuri's darkening fate.