• 1-Lux Aeterna
• 2-Close Clover
• 3-Ever Dream
• 4-Ocean Soul
• 5-Slaying the Dreamer
• 6-Nemo

That unease increased as her gaze dropped to the plate before her, staring blankly at a brightly colored mesh of vegetables in a small bowl, not to mention the rice, strange looking soup, and – what in the name of all things magical was that in the place of the main course? And were were the utensils?

“Kono no namae wa zabuton desu.” Eriko startled her out of her beginning terror, the woman smirking slightly as Hermione followed her pointing finger to the pillow beneath her legs. “...the name of this is zabuton.”

“Kore wa hashi.” Akiko said happily, holding up her own chopsticks for Hermione to see. “Watashi no hashi wa aoi. These are hashi. My hashi are blue.”

“...oh...I understand.” Hermione managed, watching as both girls gave her a slightly disappointed look, Akiko setting her chopsticks down with a soft sigh. It was at this moment that she realized they were hoping for a response in Japanese, and she froze mentally. A shaky breath as she hastily beat her brain into functioning, rapidly going over everything Souichiro had said in the short time she'd spent with him. He'd mentioned understand at some point. And she'd just heard how to refer to herself, right?

It was a very hesitant and quiet voice that finally, shakily, spoke the words she had just hastily strung together, blushing even as she spoke them. “W...watashi wa...wa...wakarimasuka...?”

“Close.” Eriko said, her face a blank mask – completely opposite of her sister's. “You know the words, and even a bit of the structure. But adding ka to the end makes it a question. You just asked if you understood.”

“Oh, but that was very good!” Akiko argued, grinning. “...If you'd like, you can even say watashi wa wakatte.”

“...Akiko, we can't confuse her with both forms all at once.” Eriko muttered, rolling her eyes, before fixing them on Hermione. “Japanese has two different ways of speaking – well, now there are only two that are used, not counting regional dialects – a polite form and a casual, or plain form. What she just said is in casual form – it's okay to use with those your own age or younger, or who are ranked below you...but very rude to use with those older or superior to you. Wakarimasu is the polite form. The verb alone, to understand, is wakaru.”

“Oh. Okay.” Hermione responded, smiling a little bit to both girls. Before she could so much as reach for her chopsticks – hashi, she reminded herself sternly – Eriko put her hands together before her, bowing her head. A prayer? Hermione wondered, blinking.

“Itadakimasu.” Eriko murmured, and Akiko nodded to Hermione, before she did the same. Hesitantly, Hermione copied their actions, and both looked pleased. “...Giving thanks before the meal. I always try to remember – it's a thanks to all involved in the preparation of the meal. After we finish eating, we do the same, but say gochisosamadeshita.”

“Oh...that's really amazing.” Hermione commented, moving to pick up her hashi and feeling thankful she at least knew how to hold them properly. It wasn't until she put the first thin white piece of food into her mouth from the center dish that she realized the two girls were both watching her openly.

And she knew exactly why Eriko had a smirk on her face when she began chewing and found herself assailed by a taste rather similar to canned tuna, but with a very sharp bite of vinegar underlying it. It was like nothing she had ever eaten in England, and though it was good, a part of her wondered just why Akiko shot her twin a triumphant look, and Eriko looked surprised.

Rather than ask, she merely contented herself with bites alternating between fish and rice, and vegetable and rice. Whatever the strange cooked salad was, it was delicious – even the eggplant, which was never eaten in her own home. The soup, she realized, had to be miso, and though a little different, she enjoyed it thoroughly.

Only when the fish was gone, did she pause and set her chopsticks carefully across her rice bowl, looking up at her companions with a composed look. Both girls looked at her, a little confused, but Eriko had an idea of what was coming next, if the return of her small smirk was anything to go by.

“...what did I just eat?” Hermione questioned, voice unwavering as she met Eriko's gaze – Akiko had flushed a bit, and from the faint bowing of her head, it was obvious there would be no answer from that quarter.

“Sashimi.” Eriko responded, equally calmly, watching Hermione's face for a sign of disgust. When there was none, despite thinking every Westerner knew what it was, she became certain this one must not have known. “It is -”

“Raw fish, soaked in vinegar to remove bacteria and, if properly prepared, any chance of food poisoning.” Hermione said easily, returning to the meal, her head bowing to hide her own rather self-satisfied smirk. “...It's delicious.”

After they had finished eating, and said the after-meal thanks, Eriko proved that she was not quite finished messing with her head, giving a sharp clap of her hands. Horror dawned as Hermione watched a small child slip silently into the room, kneeling and bowing before them, before scooting forward to begin gathering the dishes into a large box-like tray.

As much as she wanted to immediately begin protesting, the calculating look Eriko was giving her kept her silent until the girl left the room, and Eriko got to her feet to walk toward the edge of the room. It was obvious as Akiko got up as well that she was expected to follow them out of the building and into the woods, but Hermione did not move.

“...who was she?” She knew when Eriko paused and her face turned slightly, so she could see a not-quite-full profile, that this was what the girl had been waiting for. Akiko let out a sigh, backing away from the tension beginning to rise in the room.

“A servant – of no importance.” Hermione didn't see Akiko's hand slamming into her forehead, nor hear the loud smack that accompanied the expression, but if she had, she would have suspected that this was more intentional than she had first thought.

“...that child...is a servant?” Her voice was incredulous, and she could not help staring in horror at the door the small one had just left through. “She's much too young! This can't be legal – is she even paid?!”

“What you should first be asking yourself is, is she even human.”

“That doesn't matter, that doesn't make this right!” Hermione got to her feet, bristling with anger – it was house elves all over again, but made so much worse by the fact that it was only a child, and it even looked perfectly human. “You can't just enslave something because it's not like you! Much less force it to work when it's so young!”

“...what makes you think she is enslaved? Or even young, Hermione?” The girl's voice had become a bit more sinister, the smirk more twisted, as she clapped her hands again. The girl returned, bowing as she had before – but this time only to Eriko. “...Hana. Show yourself to this Westerner – and tell her your story.”

Hermione was frozen as the child shifted so that she was kneeling before her, still bowed to the ground – to her shock, when the child began to speak, it was not verbally – but into her mind itself, a soft melodic voice that had her holding herself from the haunting quality.

“My name is Hana...I am one of the creatures of the Nara region. I was alive once, when that city was the capital. I was five years old when I died – my mother and I were going home after a festival, when the torches in the street went out. Everything went dark then. When I could see again, I was standing over the mutilated remains of her body. A lord saw this, and immediately captured me. He did not know who I was, but he knew my mother as one of the former ladies of the empress's daughter, and assumed that I had killed her. I was taken to some of the stranger priests of that time – they who claimed that they could ensure the purification of a murder victim by performing certain rites upon the murderer.

“...these rituals destroy the murderer – unless they are innocent. If they are innocent, it was known to destroy their humanity, but leave them eternal...and often vengeful. This is why it was forbidden to be performed unless there was no doubt of guilt. It was horrendously painful – but when, at the end, I was not dead, I felt no anger towards them. ...you see, I had feared I had somehow done this thing to my mother – but if I was still alive, human or not, my mother had not died at my hand.

“Rather than go to others and inform them of what had been done to me, I ran away – I did not know, at that time, what it was that had been done to me. I hurt – I could not speak, or see. All I had was my touch and hearing – and to a child, this is a horrifying thing... I found myself in the mountains, and before long, the Satoshi clan found me.

“They knew me for what I was. Took me in, and taught me how to communicate with others – I was not the first of my kind they had found. At that time, Mahoutsukai did not yet exist...the Satoshi clan, then courtiers and priests and priestesses, traveled a great deal through our country, training those who needed it, and passing on the knowledge to teach others to those like them. And often, they came across those like me – they knew the corruption of magic was the cause for our creation, but for many years, the practice continued, encouraged by the court for the worst of murders...” The small figure let out a soft sigh, form trembling slightly. “Because of them, I became strong, and had a chance for love. When I had existed some twenty years, because I would never have children of my own, I took on the duty of a nursemaid – I could not have children, but I loved them dearly. When something happened to one parent or both, I stepped in to ease the burden on the living. I serve the Satoshi family of my own will, because they are the only family I have – and this is what I do best.”

Hermione watched as the figure straightened, though her head was still bowed, her long black hair a curtain hiding her face from view. When her head lifted and that hair fell away, Hermione let out a gasp of horror. There were no eyes on that face, and from the slightly sunken-in appearance of the throat, it was not the stitching through the lips that had caused her inability to speak. The skin of her face was no more than a patchwork of scars, the most horrifying being the fact that some wounds had healed improperly, separate from where it was meant to be attached, and so was stitched together so that the face remained partially human.

“Only among the Satoshi are my kind accepted – though there are not so many of us left anymore. We always look the same, you see...and we can only die when we are tired of existence itself – we must give up on the appearance of living. In this time of peace, there are only twenty of us left among the Satoshi, and perhaps a handful of the malicious out in the wild places of Nippon...”

“...oh my god...” Hermione whispered, tears in her eyes. A part of her wanted to scream and run from this creature, but her heart broke as she saw the delicate bone structure that revealed what a beautiful child this girl had once been. It was worse in the beginning that this creature was so close, its knees almost touching her own, but when her heart took over, it made it easier on her.

Eriko found herself shocked once again as this foreigner did not scream and flee the room, but actually reached out and placed her hand on Hana's mutilated cheek, not even flinching when her palm touched the slight gap that not even the tightest stitching could remove.

“You are beautiful, Hana.” The voice was gentle, and, unbound by the limitations of humanity and human knowledge, Hana understood those words even though they were not in her own tongue. For the first time since her arrival among the Satoshi, tears slid from the mass of burn scars that had once been closed eyelids over innocent eyes. It had always been assumed that Hana had been more damaged than others of her kind – all of whom had functioning tear ducts, despite the damage done to their eyes – because the childlike being had never once cried before them.

“...I am not beautiful...”

“...that is a lie.” Hermione whispered, letting her hand fall back to her lap. “Your beauty is covered by the scars inflicted upon you – but it is still there. I can see it.”

“She belongs here, Eriko.” Akiko snarled suddenly. “Call off your servant and stop testing her, she is one of us!”

“Hana, you may leave when it suits you to do so.” Eriko's voice was gentle, but became much colder as her gaze focused on Hermione, and she answered her twin's demand. “...and she is not one of us. She is nowhere near worthy.”

Author's Note:

I forgot to mention that Eriko was a frigid bitch in the beginning, didn't I? Also: while I have never heard of anything like Hana in legend, to my recollection anyway, I would not be surprised if something of the sort is a horror story in Japan. This being was heavily influenced by having played the games Fatal Frame II and III – excellent games, despite being scary as all hell – which are of Japanese origin, if I am not mistaken. For reference, Nara ceased to be the capital some thousand years ago, and she was born only halfway through it's lifespan as the capital of Japan.

The title, as is my norm, is a song. Nemo is by Nightwish, and it's not so much setting the feeling of Hermione as it is Hana – and when I was thinking of her name, the line “My flower, withered between the pages two and three...” and I had her name - “Hana” means flower (and nose, but that is not the kanji used in Hana's name). The line kind of fits – she was only just starting the story of her life, when she had it taken away from her.

I believe I love Hana, even though her story just kind of wrote itself, as did her description, and she is rather terrifying to think of, considering that there are others like her that are the things of nightmares. There is just something about her – but I don't know if I will use her again. ::Ponder.:: What do you think?

AFF.Net Only

Hey guys! How have you been? If anyone is still following this, is there any chance of convincing you to go to the ff.net site? I'm more likely to update there before I do here, as I have to use freaking html tags, as for some reason aff.net hates my uploads and screws with them. Either way doesn't really matter, but for those of you who are interested, I'm going to start posting the link to the ff.net version so that you can check it for updates - they'll be there first.