Chapter 2: Marked
When my consciousness returns, I am laying down again, on a padded mat covered in a white sheet.
My fingers reach for something, maybe Akako-chan's hand, but they brush only against smooth wood.
A table next to me has a bowl filled with cold miso soup that I don't drink. Shifting up, I put my hands to my face. They catch on something above my eye. A bandage. What is there? I do not lift the strips of fabric.
I open my eyes, but they will not open. No, they are open, I feel the air brushing against them, but I only see darkness.
"Okaasan!" I cry out.
No one comes. I sit there, I don't know for how long, but in time my vision begins to return. It's strange though. When at last I feel it is back, it is white and smoky. I look around me. Oji Yoriichi says that I must always be aware of my surroundings.
I am in a room I have been in before, the cherry blossom curtains and polished wood of the sweeping windows are familiar to me.
I must be in oji Yoriichi's home. But why would I be here? Where is father? Where is okaasan? And where is my sister? Where is Akako-chan?
I feel someone coming, the air from outside the door has gathered around something. I bring the sheets up over my chest.
The door slides open. Oji Yoriichi enters, his footsteps soft upon the wood. He draws near where I lay, and places a hand upon the bandage as he sits down next to me.
He smiles sadly. "I know you are awake, Mizuki." He brings his fingers below the bandage. "I can see your eyes."
I sit up a little straighter. With careful fingers, he gently lifts the bandage off of my forehead. He breathes in.
"You've been marked," he says. "It must have been the demon."
"Demon?" I ask.
"Yes," oji Yoriichi replies, though almost sounding closed off. "When I killed it, some of it's blood must have marked you. It probably would have, seeing as it is one directly related to Kibutsuji..." he trails off.
"Am I going to be a demon now, oji Yoriichi?"
"No, Mizuki, you are not going to become a demon," he tells me reassuringly.
I sigh in relief.
Now that the idea of turning into a demon has been wiped from my mind, I begin to worry about other things.
"Where is Akako-chan?" I ask. To this, Yoriichi smiled.
"Your sister wanted to see you the moment you were brought here. She has been quite persistent."
I shuffle a bit until I am sitting up straighter, not wanting to appear lazy and slumped. "Is she alright?"
"She is fine," he says, smiling. "Not a scratch on her kimono."
I blink rapidly.
"Is something wrong?" he asks as I avert my gaze.
"It's my eyes," I reply. "Everything looks white and smoky."
Yoriichi frowns.
"That is strange. I have never heard of demon blood absorption having that effect on a human."
He ponders for a moment, apparently lost in thought. "It's not painful, is it, Mizuki?"
I shake my head vigorously. "No," I say. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't have any feeling to it at all. It feels normal, like nothing has changed.
I realize I've forgotten something.
"What about okaasan and father? Are they alright?"
Yoriichi's lips tighten.
"Your mother is unharmed, yes, but Michikatsu...he took quite a blow to the head."
"He will be fine," Yoriichi adds, noticing my look. His smile remains true, but his eyes harden. "He is awake, if you wish to see him."
He snaps his fingers and a few moments later the door is sliding open and a woman in a light blue kimono enters the room, hurrying to gather the tray of miso, and sliding the doors closed again.
"Your mother and sister are out in the yard, waiting for you, once you have spoken with your father," Yoriichi says quietly.
My uncle pulls back the sheets, helping me up until I am able to stand straight on the wooden floor.
We walk together through the halls. I have always liked oji Yoriichi's home, especially the way that every room has sunlight streaming through the wide windows.
He pauses before a room whose doors are slid closed. Over the door frame hangs a symbol, one I have seen before but do not understand.
Yoriichi slides the doors open. My father lies on his back on a mat similar to the one I awoke from, eyes open and staring fixedly at the bamboo of the ceiling, as though it had the secrets of the universe locked behind those smooth stalks.
Father coughs, then, noticing me, smiles, but his eyes darken for a second when he sees his brother behind me.
"I will leave you," Yoriichi says, turning out of the room and sliding the doors closed behind him.
Father motions for me to sit next to him. I walk over slowly and plunk down at the side of his bed.
"There is something I must tell you, Mizuki," father's voice says. He looks at me, almost pityingly. "I'm leaving."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
badbyotch
badbyotch can u guess what happens next? :)