Yakimura stared out the window, sipping on a lavishly expensive tea. She stared at the windows weeping from the sudden summer rain and shook her head in displeasure. There was a loud bang coming from the kitchen that caught her attention, despite her office's location. She was surprised she could hear it; but once the collected amount of screams began pleading and the familiar stench of ash filled her nose, she recognized it.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Yakimura stated and in came Yuri, Hikari, and of course, Mr. Yamasaki. He gripped tightly to the girls' hair as he held them firmly before the woman's desk.

"One was stripped practically naked for a swim. The other decided to physically attack me," he stated. The girls' eyes went wide in protest.

"I was not naked!" Yuri protested through her tears. "Miss Yakimura he hit Hikari!" She cried, the woman slamming her fist on the table.

"You will not feed lies to your superior!" She fired back and the two fell completely silent. Yamasaki released them and fumbled in his pocket for a cigarette lighter; his stress levels had reached the roof, especially around the headmistress.

"Mr. Yamasaki has done business around here for years now. He's one of my most trusted advisors and a very close friend. If you have anything else to say, hold your tongues or I'll see a vile punishment." She explained.

Thus, both continued without a word. "Hikari, you will go to bed without dinner. As for now, you are excused." Yakimura stated as the girl scrambled from the room, leaving Yuri by herself.

Mr. Yamasaki sat down on the loveseat beside the bookcase and smoked on the cigarette he'd lit up. "Leaving the grounds unauthorized. Frolicking about during your work hours. Dammit Hatori how many times have we been through this?!" The woman shouted as her temper began to erupt.

Yuri stayed quiet; she'd grown used to the woman's fits as she clung tightly to her arms. "Six times..." She muttered quietly beneath her breath. The woman raised a brow as she pulled the bottom desk drawer open.

"Six times?" The woman replied sarcastically, frantically lighting up a cigarette for herself. "I'll be damned Hatori. Six damn times...and you still manage to baffle me. You have it memorized now?"

Yuri felt shivers move up her back. The wounds seeped deep into her skin counted for her. A lash for a sin - every time she'd escaped and her fellow roommates took it upon themselves to punish her when Yakimura punished them.

"I counted, ma'am.." She replied softly, looking at the floor as Yamasaki breathed out a breath of smoke.

"Counted? Instead of inflicting punishment on the whole group of those bitches I'd punish Hatori by herself," the man retorted nonchalantly as he puffed out a smoke again. The headmistress sighed and rubbed her temples anxiously.

"I'd rather punish them together; if one misbehaves they all learn a lesson." She replied firmly.

"Well that doesn't seem to be working now does it?" Yamasaki's tone began to raise firmly as Yuri longed to end their bickering.

"You're not going to start changing my rules, Matsuo." Yakimura growled beneath her breath. Inhaling a puff of smoke, Yakimura dipped some of her cigarette into the ash tray. "I've had enough of you controlling my every so move! Like you always do!" she replied, wrinkling her eyebrows.

Yamasaki slammed his fist into the table. "Bullshit!" He retorted, moving his cigarette into the corner of his mouth and standing up. "How she's supposed to learn if everyone else suffers with her, huh? She'll go and do it again!" He protested fervently.

"Wait, Matsuo calm down. Not right now. Not with Yuri still in here..." She replied quietly, rubbing her temples as Yuri bit her lips nervously. Yamasaki, whom the Headmistress informed as Matsuo, glanced at Yuri and sat back down.

The woman took a deep breath and discarded her cigarette in the ashtray. She cleared her throat and fixed her hair. "I'll have Mr. Loire punish you immediately." Yakimura sighed as she sat down again. Matsuo put out his cigarette as he turned to the woman and sighed.

"Matsuo give him a call.." She muttered stressfully. He lazily rolled his eyes before the woman twitched her fingers. "I said give him a call dammit!" She screamed, Yuri covering her ears.

Yamasaki rolled his eyes again and stepped over the telephone, lifting it up and rolling the numbers in as Yakimura stood up. "You people are all so stupid! I don't understand!" She exclaimed, lighting up another cigarette as she walked past Yuri in an agitated manner.

Matsuo glanced at Yakimura until a man picked up on the other line. The two began talking before Yuri looked up at the woman. "Ma'am.." She said softly.

Yakimura couldn't resist her temptation to give in to her violent urges and finally struck Yuri across the head. The blow was hard enough that she yelped and fell to the floor, huddling up in a ball.

"Look man get your ass down here Akiko isn't happy," Yamasaki said through the phone. "Hatori decided to sneak out again," he replied, running his palm through his hair.

A few seconds later the man sighed in disgust and hung up the phone. Yakimura shook off her stress and quickly pulled Yuri up from the floor. "I'm sorry, child." She replied, clearing her throat. "I...I don't know what came over me."

Yuri shook her head slightly, frowning sharply. "It's alright.." She replied gently before footsteps echoed outside of the door. Loire had arrived, and Yuri glanced at the doorknob turning and felt her stomach churning in anxiety. It opened momentarily and the man of tall stature glanced at the party scattered around the rather small room.

"Let's go, brat." He said quickly, snatching Yuri by the hair and pulling her from the room. She tried her best to suppress her screams but, well, of course she yelped loudly at the man's unkindly gesture. She examined his pants and clothes intently, slightly unsure of where he was taking her.

As Yuri left, Yakimura sat back down in her chair. Her eyes wandered to the window as Yamasaki decided to light another cigarette.

"After all you said about punishing the entire trio of kids.." Abruptly, Matsuo spoke up again, shaking his head. He took a puff as Yakimura rubbed her temples out of habit again.

"I don't want to hear you bickering at me again. Besides, if I hadn't told Loire to punish Hatori then the consequence would be your griping."

Matsuo laughed aloud and wiped his eyes. "Oh my dear, dear friend, you never fail to amuse me." He chuckled hysterically. "Now shut your mouth, I want to enjoy my program." Matsuo said as he flicked on the radio.

Loire, a slick man in his late twenties, smoothed out his trousers and pulled off his jacket. He was notorious for being "the man with the mustache" around the house, and was greatly feared by the majority of children Yuri knew there. He was a tall character with the most intimidating brown eyes and oiled jet black hair. Up until this point, Yuri hadn't been formerly acquainted with the bizarre punishments this man performed on her friends. He seemed a bit standoffish, but overall a tiny psychopathic.

"Running away and stripping all your clothes for a swim?" He said curiously, Yuri seated in a wooden chair in the center of the room.

"I didn't mean to run away.." She retorted timidly as the man raised a finger at her. "I was under the impression I could take a break,"

The man clicked his tongue with a few "tsks" raising from his mouth. "Al contraire, m'lady, Mrs. Yakimura never said you could take a break, did she?" He replied quickly as he circled around her.

"I-I suppose she didn't..." Yuri muttered softly; her fingers nervously fidgeted with one another.

"Exactly, m'lady. Now, I like to consider myself a reasonable man. I hear your tragic circumstances and feel the natural human urge to have empathy for you. However, when a friend breaks the trust of another, as for example, you and Mrs. Yakimura-"

Yuri quickly interrupted the man with a fervent reply. "We're not especially close-" she began before the man with the mustache stopped her mid-sentence.

"Na-uh-uh, don't forget m'lady, I am the person in charge in our current situation." He sang curiously at her. The mustached man approached the bookshelf where he scanned through a series of books. "I have quite the punishment for you, Yuri." Loire began before turning around with a book cased in orange.

Yuri narrowed her eyes at the book, reading the words A Farewell To Arms with squinted eyes. Loire carried the book over to her and she glanced at it in confusion.

"Sir..?" She said curiously before the man grabbed her by the arm.

"Everything is prepared for you, let us go now to face your punishment," he exclaimed as Yuri allowed herself to be dragged by this strange man. Within a few seconds, just down the hall in the bathroom, a few girls stood around the door as the mustached fellow pulled her along.

A few of the girls looked to one another in giggles. Yuri stared at them perplexed as the man pulled her inside the bathroom, one of the bathtubs towards the window packed full of ice.

"Here we are," he said, scooting past the spectators with a devious grin. "Here is your punishment, Hatori. You're going to take a bath." Loire explained as Yuri glanced up to the man in confusion.

"I-I don't understand.." She said softly. "It's all ice.."

Loire rubbed his temples in frustration. "Take off your clothes." Loire abruptly stated as he began pulling on the on her overdress. Yuri's eyes lit up as she quickly jerked away from the man. She began to understand why he was feared by the other girls. He came off as pushy and perverse now.

"N-no thank you..." She replied cautiously as Loire irked his eyebrows at her.

"I said now, Hatori." He replied in an agitated manner, a few of the girls getting a little impatient.

"Come on Yuri don't make him mad!" One called from the edge of the room. Yuri's fists clenched up as she looked down in humiliation. "Nobody cares if you're naked or not!" The same girl shouted as Yuri shook her head again.

"I said no!" She protested vigilantly, fighting through the tears. "A-and if any of you have a problem with that t-then you can leave!" She shouted before Loire yanked back her hair again, emitting a shriek from Hatori.

"I'm not playing these ridiculous games of yours, m'lady." He warned cautiously. "I'll fetch Yakimura again if that's what you ever so desire." Loire shook his head in discontent as Yuri stared at her feet. How could such a punishment be permitted here? She thought that before tearing off her outer layers of clothes in an aggressive manner and her shoes. Things escalated quickly and she climbed into the tub, Loire stopping his pestering.

"Now ladies, get out of here. I'll return in an hour, don't get any foolish ideas, Hatori." He warned as he ushered the girls from the room along with himself. Yuri could hear the door lock behind her as she curled up in ball to conserve heat.

"Almost...almost done..." Yuri said quietly to herself, glancing at the locked door. It burned terribly, and she could feel her fingers tingling from the frigid sensation. An overwhelming wave of despair sank over her as she sat there. Somehow, her eyes grew tired from the freezing water.

She began losing herself to her thoughts; butterflies seeped into her mind, scattering about into a tall man. Yuri felt as though she could observe the fellow without him vanishing into her memories. She could vividly see eyes as yellow as the sun painted behind his eyelids. They stared at Yuri, and she felt a sense of a ghostly presence in the dream.

He wouldn't say anything, rather he just stared intently at her. She felt a little uncomfortable at the revelation and began to flee in the opposing direction. There were corpses in trees begging for Yuri, seeming to be damned into a hell-like abyss of unpleasantness. It scared her deeply, far worse than a tub of ice or the mustached man. Their flesh seemed to be rotting from their bones and disintegrating to the bottomless pit bellow.

Yuri fled as best she could, screaming and crying at the terrible sight in the seemingly endless corridor. There was a woman, her hair as white as snow and her skin as pale as a cloud, lying on the floor. When Yuri saw her, she approached her in fear. She seemed to be helpless, and, a gentle heart, Yuri sought to comfort her.

"Wake up....!" She found herself exclaiming before the woman tilted her head at Yuri. A hideous sight was in hand; her face was disfigured and burnt, her skin was falling off the bone in the most disgusting sight Yuri ever placed her eyes upon.

A large scream emitted from her lips as she fell backwards; the darkness beneath began to consume her arms, tying tightly to her skin. Yuri could do nothing but cry aloud to a being she wasn't entirely sure existed or not.

"Stop it! Stop it! Help me!" She screamed as she could feel a burning sensation on her skin. It felt like hellfire, and it scared her enough to cause uncontrollable tears to stream down her face. Then, it stopped. Her eyes were sealed shut, and a soft feeling came over her. When she mustered the courage to look up from her pitiful position, she laid her gaze upon a set of fair blue eyes, crisp as the sky and clear as the ocean.

Her heart jumped from her chest; she took the mysterious character's facial expression and applied it to her heart. The eyes glancing to her were soft and gentle, giving her the warmest feeling.

"Could it be..true? Is it..mama? Or someone else...? My heart is aching terribly for this person...who..who are you? What are these dreams from this ice...I don't understand...I don't understand anything. I can barely believe in this religion...or a God who leaves me here alone. What does Yakimura say about all of this? What do these crucifixes mean...I don't...understand."

The ice froze her body enough to send her into an abyss of unconsciousness. Her dreams carried her away, and, when Loire stumbled upon her body an hour or so later, shook his head in displeasure. "Why, m'lady seems to have fallen asleep." He shook his head. Somehow, when he glanced into the ice bath and his eyes lingered towards Yuri, he could sense an unnerving presence seeping up his back. It was as if eyes as golden as the stars reflected off the water.