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[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

After a week of keeping silent, as Ms. Braddock had told him to do, Shiro finally goes to tell Sarah what he saw that night over a week ago. He's still wearing baggy clothing to hide the discoloration, but since the black has faded away from his face by now, he doesn't cover it. Without knocking, he opens the door to Sarah's basement abode and slowly walks down the steps.

Sarah looks up from her desk, a textbook open and a highlighter in her hand. "I thought maybe you'd forgotten about it." Fuck greetings, let's get to the important stuff.

"I had not, especially after your boyfriend felt it necessary to remind me electronically." He approaches her, standing at the opposite side of her desk, his hands in his hoodie pocket. "You attacked Ms. Braddock." Shiro can be just as blunt.

Sarah laughs, but sobers up after a moment or two. "Shiro... I didn't... I don't just attack people."

He shrugs, but the look in his eyes shows that he doesn't believe her in this case. "You did. I saw you run at her with one of your bones in your hand, intent on causing her pain."

She shakes her head, slowly, tries to remember something about that night... anything. "Did you see anything else? You had to have seen what happened before that..."

Shiro shakes his head. "I heard some voices coming from the computer lab, and I headed over there. All I saw was you pull two bones from your shoulder and attack Ms. Braddock."

Sarah gives a frustrated little growl, and looks directly at him. "I don't just attack people for the hell of it. Especially not Betsy. And not while there's fucking armed guards running around the mansion!"

"Apparently you do," he responds, glaring at her, heat radiating from his body. "I am not lying. You attacked her for reasons neither she nor I understand, and she stopped you before either of you could hurt each other."

"And just left me? You said that you found me Shiro. She left me there unconscious? Please tell me you see something doesn't add up here."

"I'll admit that it was cruel to just leave you," he says hesitantly, "But she said that since others were in danger, she had to go to them. You were safe there." Somehow, the words don't seem quite as convincing this time around as they did coming out of Betsy's mouth.

Sarah sees his hesitation, and her heart jumps a little. He wasn't so sure anymore. Good. Because she wasn't so sure either. "She left me unconscious. Helpless." She runs a hand through her hair, and sighs. "I can be cranky, Shiro, violent, yes, but I don't just go around trying to hurt people just because. You could ask anybody here."

"Maybe so, but she would not have fought you unless something instigated it. She is not that kind of woman."

Sarah stops, and watches him very carefully. "Is she not? Do you know what she did to me last time Shiro?"

Feeling slightly defensive, Shiro crosses his arms over his chest, not caring that he's revealing his still-black hands to Sarah. "What?"

Sarah stands up, slowly, and lifts up the back of her shirt. A few bones stick out of her spine, towards the bottom. She points at one. "She took a bone, a lot like this one. And she twisted it. And then yanked it out. I bled all over the hallway out there." She turns to face him. "It took my healing factor two days before it was healed. You don't twist the bones on my spine."

"Did she know that? She was just trying to assist you, I'm sure. Why would she, or any adult here for that matter, harm any of the students here?"

"She knew it hurt. She told me she knew." Sarah says it simply, anger only just a subtext in her voice. "She twisted it, and I told her it hurt. So she yanked it out. And told me the pain was good for me as blood is running down my back and onto the floor."

Shiro hesitates before shrugging again. "I don't know what to say. All I know is what I've told you."

Sarah nods slowly. "And I'm glad you came to tell me what you know. Thank you. But I have to ask you to please believe me when I say that there has to be more to this. Something isn't right, Shiro."

"It's not my concern any longer," he says quietly, although he doesn't believe the words himself. "I am just the messenger. What happens now does not involve me."

She looks up at him, feeling more than a little helpless in the current situation. "I understand. I wouldn't want dragged into this whole mess either. Just... don't condemn me Shiro. Especially for something I'm sure I didn't do."

"Whatever." Shiro turns around and starts heading back up the stairs. He stops halfway up and turns around. "Just . . . be careful. Ms. Braddock is a powerful woman. I would hate to get on her bad side."

"Shiro, I think if anybody knows what it's like to be on Elisabeth Braddock's bad side, it's me," she says, watching him leave.

"I have a feeling that you have not yet seen it in its entirety," he mutters in Japanese, turning back and leaving the basement.