Himiko

Himiko is a free-lance spiritualist with real spiritual powers and a hole in her pocket. She comes from Kyoto for a case (Aiko's) and meets Miyu. After that, despite Miyu's insistence that the people she feeds from are better off than before (which, strangely enough, is usually true), she becomes obsessed with killing "that devil child" and remains to hunt Miyu down.

One day, Himiko has travelled back to where she lived for a few months as a little girl. She has come to investigate something she seems to remember, but can't quite grasp. She walks up a hill and sits on a rock for a moment, lighting a cigarette and thinking. She remembers that, one evening, she was playing ball. She could not have been older than four years old. The ball got away from her and she chased it onto the top of the hill, where there was a large, spooky house. Behind the curtains, she saw black figures silhouetted in red light. As footsteps echo toward her, she ran away, then lay, shivering with fear, in her bed. Himiko now wants to see whether the house was actually there or not. She half believes that it was just her imagination all those years ago. She gets up, walks to the top of the hill, and smiles. There is nothing there but an empty plain. She feels stupid and turns away, about to go back down the hill, when she feels an odd flash of energy. She turns, and finds the same house from her childhood looming behind her. She decides to go in and investigate.

Inside, she finds Miyu. She says: "I thought I might find you here." Himiko pauses before a closed door just like all the others she's opened before. Miyu is blocking her path. Then Miyu bows and motions she open the door. Himiko does, and screams. Inside, two people float upside down, trapped. The room is filled with glass. "What... what is this?" she asks, frightened. Miyu looks sad. "These are my parents," she explains. All of a sudden, as she watches Himiko closely, her eyes grow wide. "So, that's it," she whispers, a slight smile on her face. Himiko grimaces and says: "Stop that." Miyu smiles mysteriously and changes the subject. "You know? There are some people who are unaffected at the time their blood is drunk. They grow up like that, and then, at some point, the blood in them awakens, the same blood as mine. There are those of my kind among humans as well." Himiko scowls and cries, "A kind that wouldn't exist if not for you!" Miyu smiles again. "Poor thing. You can only comprehend the world by your own measure... almost as if desperately insisting that you're human..."

Himiko asks if this is her house. Miyu nods, then shrugs. She says that, since Himiko won't remember any of this anyway, she might as well tell her. Miyu tells Himiko the story of her childhood. Later, when the story is over and Miyu has disappeared with her usual little giggle, Himiko starts awake. She is sitting on the rock and her cigarette has burned to ash. She looks puzzled for a moment, then remembers why she was here. "I wanted to confirm that there really wasn't a house up here." She rises and goes to the top of the hill, and finds, yet again, nothing. She smiles and goes back down the hill. As she walks, a sudden thought comes to her. She remembers Miyu's voice, saying "There are some people who are unaffected at the time their blood is drunk. They grow up like that, and then, at some point, the blood in them awakens, the same blood as mine." Himiko's eyes go wide and she remembers more about that day, long ago. "I didn't run away," she whispers, seeing herself a little girl (very cute!) frozen in place. The door slides open and Miyu appears. "Miyu! Looking the same then as she does now!" Himiko marvels as she remembers. Then, she grows horrified. "I didn't run away that day," she whispers again. She pictures Miyu bending toward her, a slight smile on her face and her eyes golden... The scene fades away as Himiko, standing petrified on the hill, grows smaller and smaller, until all we see is clouds and the only sound is Miyu's girlish giggling...