“I… I was hoping I could talk to you about… Hiwatari.”

“About Hiwatari?”

“Mhm.”

“What… kind of things did you want to talk about concerning him?”

He seemed a little hesitant. I guess he noticed how nervous I was and just the fact that this is about Hiwatari is probably making him wonder what I know or what to verify about him. He doesn’t know that I know about Krad yet.

“Can we talk in private please?”

“Um, of course. Both of you, please come in.”

Walking into Daisuke’s house was nothing like walking into Hiwatari’s. Daisuke’s home was full of color and love. You could feel it just by stepping through the door. You could smell his mothers cooking and you could hear the TV on in the living room. Probably his dad and grandfather watching the news or something. His house just seemed so warm and inviting. It felt like a home.

But when you walk into Hiwatari’s apartment it doesn’t feel anything like this. It feels dark and empty. It’s filled with books and papers are spread out everywhere but it all looks frozen. Like it should or hadn’t been touched in a long time. The blinds looked like they had never been opened, never given the opportunity to let the sun shine through, and the curtains were dark to emphasis that it shouldn’t get through either. There was no scent of homemade cooking, only boxes of takeout pilled in the garbage. No color was painted on the walls despite him being a talented artist. It was just very… lifeless.

I guess peoples houses represent themselves.

After we got inside and took our shoes off Daisuke’s mom came out and gave Riku a big hug. Automatically she grabbed Riku’s hand and led her away into the kitchen to talk and have her help her cook whatever it was she was making. At least she would be kept busy while Daisuke and I talked.

“So, Miss Harada, what were you going to say about Hiwatari?”

Snap back into reality Risa or you’ll make that stupid looking face…

“Oh, um… well… it’s kind of hard to say. Um… well after you and Riku dropped me off at his apartment some things happened and I was just hoping you could… answer some questions.”

“Things? What kind of things happened?”

“Well… what happened isn’t all that important. What is important is that I found out that Krad was a part of him.”

Daisuke’s eyes got really big and he let out a small gasp. I guess he really was the only other one to know about that. Well, his family too, but I mean outside of the Niwa’s no one else knew about that.

“Relax Daisuke, he told me. He admitted it to me. He knows that I know.”

And he let out a sigh of relief. But now his eyes showed an unfamiliar emotion. Something I’ve never seen in him before. It looked kinda like a combination of determination and anger. Well not anger but… his eyes looked hardened. Kind of like Hiwatari’s. Set in stone and focused.

“Did you tell Miss Riku?”

His voice was a lot lower and he sounded very serious. He was being firm but he didn’t sound angry. I really hope he wasn’t angry with me.

“No I haven’t told her. I haven’t told anyone and I don’t plan to. After spending as much time with him as I did I realize that if I told it would hurt him more.”

“So what do you want to ask me then?”

“Well I was just wondering if you knew of any ways to help him. I mean, Krad’s killing him from the inside out. It’s not fair to him.”

“I know it’s not fair Miss Harada, and believe me I want to help him just as much as you do. When found out about Krad and that he was connected to Hiwatari I always made it a point to chat with Dark every once in a while and ask him about ways to get rid of Krad or at least weaken him. Dark would go on and on about something that I couldn’t understand. It was in another language. The only word I understood was ‘wings’. Whenever I asked him what he was saying he would go silent and ignore me. I asked my family about it but they couldn’t tell me anything.”

“Did you ever try and find out what he was saying? Like looking in foreign language books or something?”

“Yeah I tried for a long time. I could never figure out what language it was. And if I did figure it out I couldn’t remember enough of what he had said to look it up. He spoke to fast.”

“Could this unknown wings thing be some piece of art?”

“I thought about that but I didn’t find any information on it. I asked my family and they found nothing. I was going to ask Hiwatari if maybe he knew, seeing as how his family were the creators of all of the art, but I didn’t want to get his hopes up if I was wrong. I don’t think I could stand to see the light fade from his eyes if I told him their might be a way to get rid of Krad only to find out that it was all fake.”

“But what if it’s not fake? What if it is the only thing that can get rid of Krad? If you don’t tell him he’ll be cursed like this forever!”

“Miss Harada I know that!”

Wow. That was the first time Daisuke had ever raised his voice at me. It was actually pretty scary. He was always so quiet and friendly that I never would have thought he could be so harsh. I guess theirs a lot of things I don’t know about the people I always called my friends.

“Miss Harada I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just that, well it frustrates me that I can’t seem to help him. He’s my best friend and he is dying from the inside out. You were completely right about that. It’s killing me to know that theirs nothing I can do for him. I can’t even seem to just be there for him anymore.”

Daisuke looked so sad all of a sudden. He looked like he was about to cry.

“No, I’m the one who should be apologizing to you Daisuke. I made it sound like you weren’t trying to help him. It’s just frustrating me too now because, well, I’ve seen the way he lives and I’ve seen what Krad does to him. It killed me. I just want to help him Daisuke, and I think you’re the only one who can help me do that.”

“I wish I could Miss Harada. I really do.”

“You can. Look, I know you don’t want to give him false hope but I think that what he needs right now is any kind of hope at all. I really think you should tell him about the wings. Let him dig into his past and see what he finds. It might save him.”

“That alone won’t save him, Miss Harada.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did he tell you about finding a Sacred Maiden?”

“Yes.”

“Well even if he did find something about these wings, and even if they were what he needed to get rid of Krad, that alone wouldn’t do the trick.”

“Why not?”

“Because one thing has always been certain about both Dark and Krad. That they both shall live on until their tamers find their Sacred Maidens. Miss Harada, the only way to kill Dark or Krad is to let them die with their tamer. For instance, if Dark were still here and I was to be killed somehow, Dark would also die. He would die because I have no children. Theirs no one for him to be passed on to. No son of the next generation to receive him. The same is true with Krad. If Hiwatari were to be killed right now, Krad would also die. That being said, if that’s the only way to kill them, to truly get rid of them, then these wings, whatever they are, would only be able to weaken or hold back Krad at best.”

Daisuke sounded so wise. Like he was speaking with years of experience.

“Well even if that is the case it would be better than nothing. Having Krad restrained would give Hiwatari a chance to find his Sacred Maiden.”

“The thing is Miss Harada, I’m not sure what these ‘wings’ are supposed to do. Dark would never tell me anything in words that I could understand. For all I know those ‘wings’, could enhance Krad’s power. Dark never liked Hiwatari and sure as heck didn’t like Krad. They could also be something that would end up killing Hiwatari if he ever used them. The possibilities of what these could do are endless. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if Hiwatari got hurt or even died because I told him had the chance to be saved by these ‘wings’. It would destroy me Miss Harada.”

“Do you really think that Dark would be so heartless to Hiwatari that he would tell you about something that would hurt him?”

“I honestly don’t know. I’d like to believe that he didn’t loathe Hiwatari so much that he’d want him dead, but Dark was the only one he knew more about Krad than any of us do. Or any of us ever could. Maybe… I just… I dunno. It’s too complicated to even describe anymore.”

Daisuke’s previously saddened look turned to that of exhaustion. Like he had been fighting with his mind so much on what to say or think about that matter that it just physically wore him out. Did that even make sense?

“Is their any way we can find out about these ‘wing’ without Hiwatari knowing?”

“I don’t think so. Theirs nothing in our family records about it that I’ve come across. I’d imagine though, that if these wings even exist, they’d be in Hiwatari’s family records. But those records are somewhere in his step-fathers mansion, miles away from here. I doubt you’d be able to sneak in and search them. Least you couldn’t without Hiwatari’s help.”

“I might be able to.”

“Miss Harada, even if you could get into that place theirs no way you’d be able to find that kind of information in a few hours, if you were even given that much time to search. You couldn’t do it on your own or in one night.”

“Well what if you help me?”

“Me? I don’t even know where this place is, let alone where to start looking inside the house for the records. We’d never pull it off.”

“Well then lets clue Hiwatari in. He could do it.”

“And what if Krad found out that he was searching for a way to get rid if him. He’d never allow it.”

“Well we wouldn’t tell Hiwatari what were up to exactly. We’d just tell him whatever we had to get inside.”

“What could we possibly tell him?”

“I dunno”

“I see way to many problems with your plan to consent to it Miss Harada.”

“Please Daisuke! It’s our only chance to help him.”

“Couldn’t we try less drastic measures?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, this is your plan. What do you think?”

“Maybe we could ask him about artwork his family created relating to wings. See what he can tell us.”

“Well if he knew directly he’d probably have done something with the wings and been done with this along time ago. I know for a fact that he looked into his family history to some extent to see if their was ever a piece created that could handle Krad.”

“Well maybe this piece was never documented.”

“Well then what good would it do us to ask him about it or search his family records?”

“Well maybe it was documented but nothing was directly written down. Or maybe it’s in the form of a riddle or something.”

“This is started to sound even more complicated than your first idea.”

“Well!”

This was really getting frustrating and I was starting to confuse myself. I’m not sure if what I said made any sense.

But the more I thought about the riddle thing the more it seemed plausible. I mean Hiwatari’s family created Krad, so if it was created early enough, someone who made something to get rid of Krad, obviously wouldn’t want The Hikari’s to know. So it might have been documented in a not so obvious way.

Maybe.

“Daisuke I’m really worn out and my brain hurts from thinking to much. I might just be going nowhere with this but could you please do me a favor?”

“Sure Miss Harada, what is it?

“Get all of the information you can on any type of wing related artwork Hiwatari’s family might have made and find pictures of it. Please?”

“Um, OK I guess I can. But why?”

“Just trust me on this one OK. Like I said, I might be going nowhere with this but I want to try it out.”

“Well alright then. I’ll see what I can find.”

“Thank you Daisuke.”

By the time Daisuke and I had finished talking it was already mid-afternoon. We had been gone a while, up in his room. When we came back downstairs his mother had Riku pulling out a fourth sheet filled with cookies. Their whole kitchen was filled with fresh baked everything. Daisuke and I stared at it in awe and his dad and grandfather just seemed to brush it off.

“Oh there you two are. You’ve been gone for quite a while now! Riku, Risa I hope you two plan on staying for lunch and then a little snack. We’ve got more than enough food to feed everyone!”

Riku looked exhausted and her eyes were pleading for me to come and save her. She must’ve been tired of being on her feet baking. Doing actual girl stuff.

Daisuke had went over and started talking with his mom. He was going on about how they had baked way to much stuff to eat and how it wasn’t very polite to make Riku cook with her. She then proceeded to scold him for talking to her in such a way.

In the mean time Riku creeped away from the scene and stood next to me. She whispered to me, “How’d it go?”

“Well I don’t really know. Their might be hope Their might not be. I just pray that there is.”

“A/N: Yay another chapter. I know Risa doesn’t seem to be this thoughtful in the anime or probably in the manga but we’ll just say that a stress overload caused her to think like she did, kay? Anyway, I plan on updating every weekend now until the story is finished. School is back up again and I don’t have time *cough*motivation*cough* to do it during the week days but writing this has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. So to speed up the process you can plan on (hope for) a new chapter every weekend. Until next weekend, please review!”