With tear-stained face, the high-school student was roaming through the streets. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. It was impossible for her to think straight, eaten up by the burden of guilt she had gathered.

She had failed on all counts and disappointed everyone. Hikari was dead. Yui was transformed. Nisha had lost control of her own powers. Haruka hated her more than ever. Wataru had raised his hand against her.

The blue-haired girl dropped to her knees in a side street and writhed, sobbing on and on. It hurt so much. The pain, she felt, was unbearable. Even her power failed to protect her. When she had jumped out of the window, she had cut herself in several places and her left knee was scraped by the impact on the floor.

I can't go on anymore.

She slammed her right fist on the asphalt while her left hand rested on her face. "I don't want to live anymore."

"You really should take the advice of your friend and calm down."

"YOU! This is all your fault! If you weren't..."

"Would you have been dead for a long time?"

"I wish I was dead! Then all this wouldn't have happened!" The girl straightened up, looked up into the sky and whispered, "I wish I was dead. Then they would all still live."

"You are a fool."

"I'm a monster!" she shouted in a trembling voice.

"Obviously, there is no point in talking to you."

"Get lost! Get out of my life!" She ran her hands through her hair. "I don't want you in me anymore!"

"That is not possible."

"I don't believe you. You constantly lie to me." With eyes wide open, she stared at her open palms. "You're in me somewhere." She pressed the fingernails of her right hand against her left forearm and scratched herself. "I'll get you out," she hissed loudly.

"That will not work, Yuna."

"Yes." She dug her fingernails deeper into her flesh and moved on. Gradually, red welts appeared on her skin, which soon began to bleed. "I'll get you out of me, and if I have to peel off my own skin."

She knelt on the asphalt and like a mad man she scratched her left forearm, which was bleeding more and more. She changed sides and began scratching her right forearm the same way. In her delusion, she didn't notice someone approached her.

"I'll get you out. I don't want you in my life anymore," she repeated loudly, her eyes sparkling with madness.

A man stepped closer to her. "Can I help you, child?" he asked hesitantly.

She ignored her visitor and continued scratching herself. "I'll get you out."

"Oh my God. You have to stop, girl!" The man squatted beside her. "Girl, can you hear me?" Since she still didn't respond to him and kept on wounding herself while babbling on, he grabbed her left wrist. "Stop it!"

Startled, the blue-haired girl jumped and stared with wide eyes into his face. "Get away from me!" She broke away and hit him in the chest with both hands, whereupon he was lifted from the ground, whirled through the air, and thrown into a vending machine, whose shop window cracked on impact.

The man groaned loudly and took a few seconds to catch his breath. "Child..."

Stumbling, Yuna moved away from him until she came to her feet and looked at him with a wildly throbbing heart. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

"I just want to help you, child."

She stumbled a few more steps before she turned around and started running. In the corner of her eye, she noticed a container on which she jumped. From there, she torpedoed with another huge leap to a fire escape at which the high-school student climbed up.

"Come back, girl!" it echoed from below as she climbed up the ladder.

On the roof, she interrupted her escape to figure out where she was. "Girl..." she whispered. "Child." She dropped to her knees with her hands on her temples. "Hikari was a girl... Ruriko's child..." The realization took her breath away and she cringed. "I killed her child." If it had been possible, she would probably have cried even more.

She scrambled to her feet and stumbled a few steps. "Someone has to tell her." With trembling hands, Yuna stroked her hair. "I have to tell her. She needs to know." She ran again and jumped to the next house roof, and from there on.

After some time she came near the house where the Wada family lived. Abruptly, she stopped in the same alleyway from which she had closed in after her failed hunt in the amusement park, as she discovered a police car in front of the property parked on the roadside. Heart pounding, she stared at the vehicle as her senses began to explore the situation.

She heard a restless heartbeat that belonged to a person sitting in the car. She pricked her ears even more when she heard a voice.

"Okay. You can do this. You have completed several courses to deal with such a situation." It was Kyo Watanabe, the police chief. "Be polite, courteous and above all factual. Take time to tell her the situation and prepare her for it." She heard the rustle of cloth as he put on his cap. He breathed again, then got out of the car.

Silently, the blue-haired girl watched the man as he walked through the front gate and approached the front door. Stunned, she stood there peering over, hearing both her fast heartbeat and his.

Kyo cleared his throat for a moment, then pressed the bell. To calm himself, he stood upright and pressed his hands flat against the sides of his thighs. Slightly trembling and swaying, he waited a full minute before ringing again.

Yuna took a step forward, when the light turned on inside the house. She backed away and fumbled with her T-shirt.

The police chief stiffened and his heartbeat became restless again. He breathed in deep when Ruriko Wada opened the door for him. In her morning gown she peered through the crack of the door. "Yes?"

Nervously, the young man licked his lips, then bowed. She did the same. "Please excuse the interruption. My name is Kyo Watanabe. I am the police chief. Are you Ruriko Wada?"

From her hiding place, the high-school student heard the pulse of the woman accelerate. "Yes," she confirmed.

"You are the mother of Hikari Wada. Is that correct?"

She dropped her gaze and nodded. "What happened?" She looked into his eyes, but he couldn't look into hers.

"I am very sorry. There was an accident."

Slowly, Ruriko nodded. "Is she dead?"

A thick lump formed in Yuna's throat, and tears welled up in her eyes, just like in the police chief's. "I'm so sorry, Wada-san," he insisted in a quavering voice. The image of Hikari on the post pushed into his mind.

The black-haired woman looked past him to his car, then she looked into his wet eyes. "She is really dead?"

Kyo sobbed and then nodded. "Yes. I'm so sorry, Wada-san." The tears began to flow again at the distant observer, and she sniffed.

The mother's lips clenched, while she was ringing for her composure. "My daughter is no longer alive?"

The young man's tears rolled down his cheeks as well. "I'm so sorry, Wada-san."

Nodding, Ruriko said, "Thank you for your work, Watanabe-san. And thank you for informing me personally."

"If I can do anything for you..."

The woman raised her hand. "It's all right. That's not your job, Mr. Police Chief." She felt sorry for her interlocutor, because obviously it was much harder for him to pull himself together than for her. "Thank you. Drive carefully." She stepped back and closed the front door.

Stunned, Kyo stood at the door and stared at it, then turned and hurried to his car. As soon as he was back behind the wheel, he lost control and let his tears run wild.

Now, Yuna turned away and stepped back into the alley. Through her keen ear, she not only heard the policeman crying, but also the woman who had just received the devastating message and sank down behind her front door. Stunned tapped the girl into the alley until she collapsed. Again and again, she slapped her hands in front of her face and cringed as her cramps shook her.

"I bring only death and suffering into this world. I don't want to live anymore. I want to die at last. I just can't bear being here any longer."

Her oni sighed. "I can take over for you, Yuna-chan."

"What?"

"You do not need to stay in this world any longer, if you do not want that. I will take control, and take care of us."

She sobbed. "What do you have from that?"

"I will be free, and you will watch and be forgotten."

"I want to die."

"I can not let you do that and you know that, but you can withdraw and leave me this body. You can step aside and forget all the pain and suffering that has befallen you. You can be with your family again."

"Yes, please."

"I will take care of everything, Yuna-chan. You can rest."

"Yes, I want that."

"Well. That is how it should be."

A jolt went through the young body. Slowly, the girl straightened up and sniffed a few more times. Then she rubbed her nose on the hem of her top. She looked at her hands and clenched her fists, whereupon she relaxed her hands.

A big smile appeared on her face. "Now it really starts."