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Ichiro awoke from a fitful sleep to the sound of his sister screaming. Since returning to consciousness last night, Kimiko's behavior had been erratic. Hardly unexpected, but that made it no less upsetting. Ichiro found himself longing for the night, when Kou and the Jaegers would perform the rite to cleanse her of the taint.

He sprang forward from his chair, cradling her in his arms. "Ki, what is it? What is it? I'm here, Ki! Ki!"

His sister spoke in Japanese, and though Ichiro's own was rusty he understood every word. ="The eyes! They're watching me! They can see into my mind and they know every inch of my body..."=

Ichiro felt a familiar wrenching in his chest. "It's okay, Ki. I'll protect you."

Ki shuddered in his arms. ="You can't. They're everywhere. No one else knows they're there... But I see them. I feel them in my sleep. Crawling..."=

"Ki... What happened to you? What did they do to you."

Ki stared blankly in response, then began giggling madly. ="Pentex gave me to the Spirals. They... did things to me..."= She closed her eyes, writhing slowly in the bed. "=I'd try to escape, and they'd catch me. And they'd punish me for being bad. And then... a couple months later, they told me you were dead. And they took me to the Spiral Labyrinth..."= She turned to look at him, her eyes glazed, still giggling. ="...and Father Wyrm showed me the truth."=

"Ki, listen to me. It was a lie. All of it. Whatever you saw in that Labyrinth, it wasn't real."

="Don't be a fool, Ichiro."= Her words were bitter and poisonous now, her face filled with contempt and hate. ="Our bloodline is dying. The Hakken are losing the wolf. We're becoming weak, corrupt, clinging to our false honor in hopes of salvation. We're dooming ourselves. Father Wyrm has shown me how to survive. He can show you too."=

Ichiro shook his head. "You have to fight it, Ki. You're stronger than this. You have honor-"

="Honor is for the weak and for fools, Ichiro. You more than anyone should know that. If you really are this assassin, this terrorist we were sent to find... Do you think father would by proud of that? Where's the honor in that? Where's the honor in drowning yourself in sake, because you're ashamed of who you are, what you are? Because you can't accept that deep down, you're a failure just like me?"=

Ichiro palled at her last comment, his face hard and angry. Summoning all his willpower to avoid hitting her, he turned towards the door.

="No, Ichiro, please.=" There was a note of panic in her voice. ="Ichiro, don't leave me here. You ******** coward, don't you dare walk away from me! ICHIRO!="

As Ichiro left the room and locked the door behind him, his sister screams after him, breaking down into a mixture of giggles and sobs.