1. Prologue (1/2)

ichor

noun \i-kr, -kr\

an ethereal fluid taking the place of blood in the veins of the ancient greek gods.

prologue

it took me a while to understand what exactly happened to me.

i'm not referring to the shooting, as i knew exactly what was happening that night. hell, i accepted it even. sure, i wanted to live as much as the next girl, but my death was…docile. i hadn't fought when that tall figure ripped my purse from my hands, nor had i struggled when the cool metal of a hand gun was pressed to my temple and the click of the safety being turned off ran through my ears. it simply was. i had closed my eyes.

when i was reborn, i was mildly surprised. in my previous life i wasn't religious, but i was relatively open to other ideas. reincarnation was something i had thought about in passing, but i adamantly was the kind of girl that needed definite and unquestionable proof to believe in something. in some ways i'm still like that, but i'm much more tolerant of the idea that other things may happen that i'm unaware of. that's certainly something that was pounded into my head.

this time around i've been born into a kind japanese family. my new mother was a lovely short haired

unette that birthed me at the relatively stable age of twenty six, and shamelessly doted on my

other and i. my father was thirty-three when i was born, a stern yet caring man who was undeniably a family man at heart. my

other, however…