Alone, Abandoned...and Angry

**Summary:** Setsuna meets her birth parents.

**(We open up on a woman who looks somewhat like Setsuna, kneeling in front of a statue of Izanami.)**

**Nagisa Gisei:** O Izanami, ruler of the underworld, grant me the strength to continue living...the strength to make it through the death of Haru...the strength to want this second child...and the strength to head your followers, oppressed though we are.

**(A small child approaches her.)**

**Little Girl:** M-Miss Aida? There's...there's a girl trying to get in. What do we do?

**(Suddenly someone kicks down the door, the woman turns around in shock. Setsuna is standing at the doorway, her eyes blaring with anger.)**

**Setsuna Mikoto:** YOU!

**Nagisa Gisei:** Impossible! Aru?!!

**Setsuna Mikoto:** It's Setsuna, Nagisa! Or should I say, mom...

**(Her followers are in shock, their leader's daughter, alive and grown up.)**

**Nagisa Gisei:** How?!

**Shinigami Mikoto:** Because I took her in.

**(Shinigami walks in after Setsuna. She activates her glyphs and kept the cultists to the ground.)**

**Nagisa Gisei:**You...you're-

**Shinigami Mikoto:** That's right, I was your precious goddess's pet. But she should've known better than to keep a tiger chained.

**(Shinigami strikes her down.)**

**Nagisa Gisei:** Why are you here?!

**Shinigami Mikoto:** I'm here so my daughter can face the person who had abandoned her.

**Little Girl:** Wh-why are you hurting Miss Gisei?!

**(Shinigami pauses. She stares at the girl, horrified.)**

**Shinigami Mikoto:** A-a child?! Working for her?! Is she the only goddess you have?!

**Nagisa Gisei:** Daughter?! She's my child!

**Shinigami Mikoto:** If you were truly her mother, you'd know better than to sacrifice her and leave her to die!

**(Suddenly police start running in and start rounding up the cultists.)**

**Nagisa Gisei:** What?!

**Shinigami Mikoto:** Also, there's another reason we're here. To arrest you!

**(She curb stomps Nagisa and knocks her out. The camera cuts to the police station with Nagisa in the interrogation room, an officer, a detective and Shinigami and Setsuna walk in.)**

**Nagisa Gisei:** How...did you find me and my people? Aru, how can you betray me?....

**Setsuna Mikoto:** My name's not Aru, it's Setsuna. Your little 'shopping' expedition for sacrifices has caused quite a stir, let's just say it took some expert level tracking. Also, betray you? You didn't even raise me or cared about me, so who is the real traitor here?

**Nagisa Gisei:** YOU LITTLE HYPOCRITE! YOU SAY THAT THE DAUGHTER OF IZANAMI IS YOUR MOTHER! YOU-

**Shinigami Mikoto:** She is not my mother. I've sworn myself to Hachiman and I've cut off all connections to her.

**(Nagisa looks at Setsuna in disbelief. Her child siding against her.)**

**Detective Kai:** Do you confess to your crime of kidnapping, child endangerment, child abuse and murder?

**Nagisa Gisei:** Murder?! You mean noble sacrifices. I've found myself in my goddess. And if what I did to appease her makes me a criminal? So be it.

**Setsuna Mikoto:** You're insane!

**Nagisa Gisei:** Insane? I am enlightened. She came to me, she whispered into my soul....

**Setsuna Mikoto:** You know, what. I'm not even doing this anymore. You abandoned me! You left me to die! I was just a sacrifice, you named Aru. My name literally means an existing sacrifice...I only existed to fulfill your sick fantasy.

**Nagisa Gisei:** It was a small price to pay, your life for the goddess's appeasement...you have the eyes of her minions, given to you by her daughter. I would die for such a blessing.

**Shinigami Mikoto:** Blessing?! I had no other choice! I took her in so she could have the life she deserves!

**Nagisa Gisei:** You've poisoned her mind...What she deserves is service to my goddess!

**Setsuna Mikoto:** Oh, you don't know this yet. But she's all locked up in the Dark Void, no way out and she'll stay there until the end of time! you left me alone,abandoned me. You don't think that I'll be angry at you?! I hate you! You might've been the one who brought me into this world, but you are not my mother. Nor will you ever be.

**(Nagisa loses it. She starts screaming hysterically and tries to shake herself from her restraints only to be further restrained by the guards. Setsuna looks at the insane woman coldy and she gets up and leaves. The camera cuts to a sanitarium where Nagisa is flailing around in a strait jacket. At the Mitama temple Setsuna is praying before the statue of Hachiman, as she mutters her prayers she slowly fumbles with the prayer beads in her hands. Hachiman appears before her, she bows politely.)**

**Setsuna Mikoto:** My lord. Is there something wrong?

**Hachiman:** I heard about what happened today. I know you are angry yet confused.

**Setsuna Mikoto:** I don't understand, why would anyone, I mean anyone, follow her?

**Hachiman:** the world works in strange ways, Setsuna. It is up to you to choose your path, they chose to go downhill. You might be her offspring but you are not her daughter. And I cannot find a worthier person become the next High Priestess of my temple.

**Setsuna Mikoto:** Thank you, my lord.

**(Hachiman smiles and disappears, Setsuna gets up and walks to her room. She digs through her things and finds the blanket her adoptive mother found her in. She takes it outside and she burns it, Shinigami walks out and holds her gently from behind. Setsuna snuggles up to her mother as the blanket and her past burns away and she is freed from it. The screen fades black.**