A.N: Okay, so this is my first YuYu Hakusho fic and from first person´s POV. It´s about Mitarai and OCs so if you hate OCs you might not like this.
Disclaimer: I don´t own YuYu Hakusho
Warnings: Contains violence, cursing etc.
Air
I sighed, closing the front door to my home. No "have a good day" or even "bye" from my parents, as usual. It was no wonder since they were still sleeping every time I left for school, but it would be nice if they would even once to wake up early enough to say bye to me. But no, they wouldn´t. Because they always ignored me when they didn´t want something, just like everybody else. I was like air; always there, but never really noticed. I sighed, starting to walk to school.
You´re probably wondering who I am, aren´t you? Well for that I´m glad, finally somebody knows I´m really here. My name is Takanishi Yuri and I´m a sixteen year old regular high school student in my first year. I have regular black hair that reaches my shoulders and also regular brown eyes. I´m about 153 cm tall (short, I know) and I think I´m slightly overweighed, but that doesn´t really bother me. Currently I was wearing my school uniform, which contained blue miniskirt, white t-shirt and a blue blouse over it. Very simple, but that´s what everyone wore.
I sighed again, entering the school yards. I was like air here too, always ignored if not needed for something. No good mornings or nice to see you yells again, unlike to everyone else. But I suppose that this was better than being bullied, but I don´t know for sure since I´ve never been bullied… unless being constantly ignored counted as bullying. Well anyway, I´ve been ignored at home pretty much always, but it didn´t bother me when I was in elementary school that much since back then I had friends. The first grade of junior high started okay as well and I even started to date this one guy called Moku, but after I broke up with him everything changed. I suppose he told to everyone something about me that wasn´t true and that´s why everyone is always ignoring me. I thought everything would chance when I came to high school but no, some people from my old junior high came here as well and most likely spread the word.
Well whatever, at least my grades stayed well since I didn´t waste time hanging out with friends. I walked to my classroom and sat in to my place, watching as the others came in. Most of them were my old classmates from junior high but some weren´t. I knew everyone´s names, though I doubted that those who weren´t in the same junior high as I didn´t know who I was, except from all the rumors.
For example; the one in the left corner in the back was Jared, an American transfer student who didn´t speak Japan too well. And guess what? Yep, he ignored me too. I tried to talk to him once, but he had probably realized that if he became friends with me he couldn´t become friends with others. Isn´t life wonderful? Then there was Hatsumomo, a total bitch who only cared about two things: fashion and boys. Speaking of boys, there was one guy in my class I really hated: Mitarai Kiyoshi. Sure, he had good looks with his clear blue eyes and blond short hair, but it was his nature that annoyed me. He was the whole class´s most popular guy. He had good grades and he was good at sports and like I already said he had good looks, so of course almost all girls drooled at him. You could think that that was a reason for guys to hate him, but no. Apparently he had hooked up many of the guys with his own fans and because of that gotten their respect, too. Sneaky bastard. If someone knew what I was thinking he or she would probably say that I´m just jealous, but I´m not! …okay maybe a little bit, but he´s still not a good person.
Wanna know what I mean? Well I´ve never seen him bullying anyone, but I´ve seen that he doesn´t do anything to help those who are bullied. He just watches and sometimes even walks away. Not that I´m much better but I´ve at least tried. But I´m always being ignored even when I try to help, so that´s why I´ve given up on that one. But hey, did I ever even say that I was a good person? Nope, I didn´t. But then again, it´s not entirely his fault. How could such a popular guy know how terrible it is to be bullied? You´re right, there´s no way. Well it´s probably better that he doesn´t know so that his perfect little world won´t shatter.
"Attention class" the teacher said, surprisingly getting everyone´s attention "We will have a new student tomorrow and I need to students to show him around tomorrow."
"Why two?" one of the guys asked.
"Just in case the other one gets something more important to do at the last moment. So, any volunteers?" as teacher asked this the whole class went quiet. Heh, one, two,
"Mitarai? Excellent, I knew I could trust you." the teacher said "And since nobody else volunteers it seems like I need to decide the other one"
What? Oh crap, here we go…
"Ms. Takanishi"
I sighed and said: "Yes teacher"
I might be mistaking but I think I heard couple of students snicker. Huh, it´s been a while since I got this much attention from others.
As the day ended I decided to go to the school´s library. On my way there I saw one of my classmates, the nerd Momomiya Tooru being beaten up by a couple of second year students. I didn´t really pay much attention, they would ignore me anyway. I noticed Mitarai walking close behind me, glancing at the scene. When the bullies looked at our direction I ignored them and Mitarai waived slightly. Friends of his? Told you he was an ass. I continued walking, Mitarai still close behind me. Looks like he was heading for the library, too. It was in the first floor and I got there quite fast and it turned out that Mitarai was heading here too since he was still behind me. I saw him take out a book from his bag, probably a one he needed to return. I went to fiction section to find a new book I could read and soon I did find something interesting. As I started to read it I saw Mitarai on the other side of the shelf from behind the books. He seemed to be looking for something.
"Mitarai!" Hatsumomo yelled, running towards him. Didn´t she know that she shouldn´t run in the library? Well it seems that she was what Mitarai was looking for since he turned his head towards her.
"You shouldn´t run in the library, Hatsumomo" I almost laughed when he said that; it´s not like Hatsumomo cared. She was one of those girls who acted like a little angel around teachers, but as soon as they turned their heads she became her evil self.
"What does it matter since nobody saw?" she asked. Oh how I hated her, always thinking that it was okay to break rules if no one saw.
"True" Mitarai, that ass, said. After that I pretended that they didn´t even be there. Time flew by fast and soon it was time for me to go home again. I borrowed a couple of books and left for home, sighing.
Halfway to my home was an old bridge which I needed to cross to get to the river´s other side. I hated that bridge; it was where I and Moku had changed our first kiss. I shook my head, trying to get the thought out of it.
When I got home I didn´t bother to tell my parents, they would ignore me anyway.
"Oh you´re home" my father said. Okay, let´s see what he wanted.
"What is it?" I asked, knowing that if I didn´t get to the point then he would.
"Yukiros are moving back to the city, in case you wanted to know" after that he walked away and I hit the wall. Why, you ask? Well Yukiro was Moku´s last name, so I think you can guess the rest by yourself. I so hate that guy.
XXXXX
The next morning I cursed in my head, having just realized that the new student was most likely Moku. Just my luck. I closed the front door to my house and left for school, barely getting there in time. Looks like my mind wandered off a bit too much this time. I sat down in to different place than usual because I didn´t want Moku to sit down next to me. This worked well since the place on my left and the place in front of me were already occupied and there were no more seats close to me.
"Attention class" the teacher said just a moment after I had sat down "Like I said yesterday; we have a new student today: Yukiro Moku"
Damn it, I knew this!
"Please take the empty seat in the back" the teacher told him. I glanced in my left; the only seat free here on the back was almost next to mine. Luckily Jared sat between us. I turned my gaze away as Moku sat down on his seat.
"After today´s classes are over Mr. Mitarai and Ms. Takanishi will show you around" the teacher told. Oh yeah, I had already forgotten about that… well if I was lucky Mitarai would keep him busy. The problem was that I usually wasn´t lucky… well, only the time would show the answer.
When the school ended me and Mitarai met Moku in the class to give him the tour.
"It´s nice to meet you" Mitarai said "My name is Mitarai Kyoshi"
"It´s nice to meet you to, I´m Yukiro Moku" he said. His appearance hadn´t changed much since last time I saw him. Same brown eyes and same brown, straight hair. And I haven´t mentioned what kind of school uniform guys use in here yet have I? Well it´s really simple, just a black suit. I noticed Mitarai looking at me and just as I was about to tell him that we already knew each other Moku spoke: "Me and Yuri already know each other; we used to go to same school like most of the students in our class"
"That´s nice to know" Mitarai said. He and his stupid acting.
"Well then, shall we go?" Moku asked. Mitarai nodded and we left the class to give Moku the tour. For once I was lucky; Mitarai really was able to keep Moku´s attention on himself.
"Could you two wait here while I go to the bathroom?" …never mind what I said. Damn that Mitarai, I wouldn´t be too surprised if I heard he did this on purpose.
"Of course" Moku said but when Mitarai didn´t leave I nodded too. Huh, I´m getting pretty much attention lately aren´t I? After Mitarai left, Moku turned his attention to me and spoke: "Having nice being like air to everyone?"
"Actually yeah; it´s nice not having anyone breathing in my neck" I replied, lying of course, but he didn´t need to know that. His eyes narrowed, clearly annoyed. I sighed.
"You know if you´re still in love with me blackmailing is not a way to get me back" I told him. He blinked and then laughed.
"In love with you?" he repeated "I´m not in love with you; I had been planning on braking up with you too but you got ahead of me"
"Then why did you bother to blackmail me?" this was something I really wanted to know. He lowered his face to my eyelevel and said: "Because nobody dumps me"
"You a kid or something?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Seriously, that was a ridiculous reason.
"No, I´m just simply angry" he said "And since this isn´t enough I can tell you that things are about to get worse"
I unconsciously took a step back and said: "You don´t have guts to do anything on your own"
He was about to say something, but Mitarai returned just in time. Finally!
"Did I interrupt something?" he asked.
"No" we said in unison.
"Well that´s good. Shall we continue?"
"Of course" Moku replied and we continued the tour. Didn´t take that long anymore and soon I was able to go back home. On my way there I couldn´t help but to wonder what Moku was planning.
XXXXX
I looked around myself the next day as I came to school. Nothing didn´t look like it had changed, so Moku was probably just throwing empty threats. But I couldn´t be too sure yet. I went to my locker and when I opened the door many papers, from ten to twenty, fell out. I picked up one of them and it said "whore." I took another one and it said "go home." I laughed a bit; if this was the worst Moku had in mind I had been worried for nothing. I took a book out of my locker, closed it and picked up the papers, throwing them to a trash can on my way to my class. When I got to my class I noticed some of the students looking at me, some of them even laughing silently. Huh, looks like Moku got some help writing those little notes for me. Well whatever, I´ll just go to my seat and wait for another tricks, since I have a strong feeling it´s not ending here. I was right; soon there were more notes in my locker. Oh well, that wasn´t so bad.
Back then I didn´t know yet what the next three days would cause to me.
The first day, Wednesday, was just notes and laughing and it was easy to handle. The next day was a bit worse, with the same laughing and notes, but then some students often "accidentally" knocked me down when I was walking to next class or to my table in the cafeteria. Friday was pretty much like that too, except that I lost my math book. ….well that´s what I said to my teacher, but I´m sure that it was actually stolen.
But today was Saturday and it was the worst.
It started like every other day; first the notes and then laughing. I managed to avoid falling down with my food and got to my table safely, which was new. When I was eating however, someone´s class of water "accidently" fell on me.
"Sorry" the boy from my class who had dropped the water said, but his face told otherwise. I rolled my eyes as he left. Okay, this was a new one. Let´s see what else he has in store for me. The rest of the school day went normally, but the real problem came when I was leaving for the library after school.
"Yuri" I heard a voice call so I turned around.
"What is it?" I asked from Moku who was standing few meters away with three other guys, all from my old junior high.
"We need to talk" he said with a smirk.
"Then talk, I´m going to the library" I said, smirking a little at his angry face. I turned around and was about to walk away, but Moku stopped me by gripping my arm.
"You know what I meant; you and I have to talk" he hissed. I looked behind him, asking: "And you need their help for it?"
I realized that it wasn´t a pretty wise thing to say when I saw his eyes narrow dangerously. Before I could react in any way his fist collided with my cheek, making me loose balance and I stumbled on to the ground. I touched my cheek. I hadn´t imagined that Moku would have guts to use violence, even if he did have people backing him up. Two of Moku´s friends came to me, taking a hold of my arms. I was starting to get a bit scared, not knowing what they were going to do. Moku and the fourth guy, who by the way was Usui Kyo, started to walk away and the other two started to drag me with them as they followed. They led me in front of a closet and threw me in. So they were going to lock me in to a closet? I could deal with that, even though tomorrow was Sunday. However, when Moku put the light on, came in with the other three and locked the door I knew that that wasn´t it. Okay they are either gonna beat me up or… no, I didn´t even want to think about the second option.
"Well let´s get started then" Moku said, taking a hold of the front of my shirt. My face paled; I knew what was coming.
XXXXX
I lay in the closet with my teary eyes closed, naked. I wasn´t exactly sure how long had I stayed there after Moku and the others had left. It could have been minutes or hours, I didn´t know. When I finally got up I regretted it immediately; it hurt all over. But I needed to get back home so I bit my lip and dressed up. When I left I didn´t even glance behind me; I had made up my mind.
I would never return to that building ever again.
On my way home I arrived to that bridge again. I stopped halfway across it, looking in to the water. When I get home, would my parents notice something had happened? Would they even care? Would anyone care?
No.
Then what was the point in continuing living? Now I really started to think about it. What was the point? No, there was no point at all. I could die right now and nobody would care. And with that though in mind I climbed on to the railing of the bridge. I knew that the water would be deep enough that I would survive from jumping, but the water was rather cold this time of a year and it had strong currents, so I´d die fast. I closed my eyes, preparing to jump.
This was it.
I was ready to die, but warm arms pulled me back from the darkness I was about to go in. I felt my feet leave the railing, landing softly back on the bridge. As soon as my feet hit the ground I opened my eyes and pulled myself out of the stranger´s arms, angrily but also afraid. It turns out that the so called stranger wasn´t a stranger after all.
It was Mitarai Kiyoshi.
"What the hell do you want!" I yelled, losing control. I hoped that he wasn´t asked to come here by Moku, because if he was I would probably try to push him over the railing. He looked shocked at first, but then his face got a hint of anger.
"What I want?" he asked, gripping both of my shoulders with his hands. I flinched "What do you want? I don´t know what´s wrong but suicide is never an answer!"
"What do you know about anything?" I screamed at him, forcing myself out of his grasp "You are popular, have good grades and are never bullied! You have no idea how hard life can be!"
There was a silence for a while; neither of us saying anything. Then he lowered his head, saying: "But I do know"
"No you do-"he cut me off by yelling: "Yes I do!"
I was shocked, but didn´t have a chance to say anything when he continued: "I was constantly bullied in junior high, ignored or made fun of by weaker students and being beaten up by the stronger ones."
I still stared at him. Who would have thought that the popular Mitarai Kiyoshi had this kind of past? Then again he might be lying, but his eyes said that he wasn´t. He sat on the railing and continued: "I chose a wrong path and did terrible things when I was fourteen"
He glanced at me, but I just stayed quiet so he continued: "I was saved, though. By someone who could easily be called one of the worst delinquents in the area. He helped me to believe in humanity again"
Now he looked at me completely, saying: "I was still bullied after that in junior high, but I kept my head. I was able to become stronger"
I laughed a bit, saying: "If you´d truly be stronger you wouldn´t be friendly with bullies"
I saw his eyes widen slightly; he clearly knew I was right.
"You´re right" he told me "But I-"
"No, you´re weak" I said "You might be stronger than you used to be, but you´re only able to protect yourself"
I looked at him sharply, asking: "Or don´t you just care what happens to other people who are like you used to be?"
He stood up, yelling at me: "Of course I do!"
I didn´t even flinch since I had been expecting that reaction.
"Then why don´t you do anything about it?" I asked. When he didn´t answer I continued: "Because you can´t. You know you can´t do anything, so you don´t even bother trying"
I went to stand next to the railing, feeling his eyes on me.
"And I´m tired of living this way" with that I returned to stand on the railing.
"Don´t-!"
"Don´t tell me what to do!" I hissed, tears threatening to fall from my eyes "I was always ignored by everyone, I was like air to them. I could deal with it; no real harm ever came. But today after school…"
I couldn´t finish, and why should I? Why should I tell him?
"I don´t know what happened to you, but things can be fixed!" Mitarai insisted, taking a hold of my arm.
"No they can´t" I said, jerking my arm back "I can never get back what I lost and I´m not going back there, not when he´s there"
He didn´t say anything for a while, so I thought he had give up. But I was wrong.
"Never thought about switching to different school?" I turned my head to glare at him angrily.
"Of course, I´m not stupid. But it wouldn´t work"
"Why not?" he asked. I just looked away, not answering.
"You can´t know without trying" he continued.
"Yes I can!" I snapped "My parents' wouldn´t believe me, and even if they did they wouldn´t care enough to let me switch school!"
I was crying now, not able to hold it back anymore.
"Nobody understands…" I whispered quietly, sobbing.
"Maybe not yet, but someday someone will" I heard Mitarai say "Help me to understand"
He took a hold of my hand and, to my surprise, I didn´t pull it back. All kind of thoughts were going through my head. I had been ready to give up, but should I? After what felt like hours I made my decision.
"Okay" I saw him smile, so I smiled back.
"You should get off of the railing; that´s dangerous" he said, his smile vanishing.
"Yeah" I said, my smile vanishing too. I was about to get off but then my leg slipped. My eyes widened and so did Mitarai´s. His grip on my hand loosened and the last thing I heard was him yelling "NO!" before I hit the water.
It was freezing and the currents were strong just like I had thought. I tried to get back to surface, but it was no use. This wasn´t fair! Just when I decided to still try, just when I found a ray of hope everything was going to end. It wasn´t fair at all! And then I slowly drifted in to unconsciousness.
XXXXX
The first thing I saw when I woke up was a white ceiling. My room didn´t have a white ceiling, so where was I? I tried to sit up, but pain all over stopped me. And then I remembered.
Moku, the closet, the bridge, Mitarai and the water… wait, what happened to Mitarai?
"Oh thank god you´re awake!" I turned my head towards the voice, seeing my mother on the left side of the bed I was lying in.
"Mom?" I asked in disbelief "Where am I?"
"In the hospital, Honey. Some boy helped you out from river and called an ambulance. He said you had fallen off of the bridge" my mother told. So Mitarai fished me up? How was just a weak kid (not that I´m one to talk) like him able to do that?
"Oh…"
"Yuri?"
"Yeah?"
"Is something wrong at school?" my face paled; how did she know? Okay, a stupid question. We were in a hospital, of course the doctors had noticed. Tears started to fall from my eyes. I didn´t want to talk about it. My mom seemed to notice my tears but asked anyway: "Yuri, who did this to you?"
"M… Moku and a couple of others from my class" I finally choked out. My mother nodded, or at least I think she did. I couldn´t see clearly through my tears.
"And the guy who called the ambulance? Was he one of them?" my mom asked. I shook my head.
"No, Mitarai hasn´t done anything" I said.
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah" I confirmed. That little nerd wouldn´t even have guts to, which was of course good for me.
"Good to know" my mom said. We were quiet for a moment until I said: "Mom?"
"Yes Honey?"
"…never mind" I said. I wasn´t even sure what I had wanted to ask, it just… everything was so confusing. I had always thought my parents didn´t even care about me, but… well, agues I was wrong.
"You don´t need to go back to that school if that´s what you´re wondering" I looked at my mom as she said this. That was not what I had been thinking, but I was grateful for it.
"Thanks" I whispered "Where´s dad?"
"Talking with the doctor" my mom said "Sleep; you need rest"
"I´ll try" and believe it or not, it was harder to say than do. As soon as I closed my eyes I fell asleep.
XXXXX
When I woke up my mom had already left. I was expecting it; it´s not like she had enough patience or time to sit around.
"Oh good, you´re awake" I turned my head towards the unfamiliar voice, seeing a nurse.
"Your mother went to the cafeteria to get some lunch for herself" she explained. I nodded, not really in a mood to talk.
"You also have a quest, should I let him in?" I tensed. If it was Moku I was definitely going to call the police.
"…what does he look alike?" I asked unsurely. The nurse seemed to think for a moment and answered: "Well I couldn´t see what color his hair was since his yellow hood was covering his head, but he had blue eyes and he was only a bit taller than you"
Moku doesn´t have blue eyes, so it wasn´t him. Hmm… blue eyes blue eyes… oh yeah, now I remember!
"Yeah, he can come in" I told the nurse who nodded and went to open the door. The one who had come for a visit was Mitarai, just like I had thought.
"I leave you young ones alone for a while, but just push the button if you need me" the nurse told, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her. I just sat there, not really knowing what to say. He didn´t move either.
"Thanks for the earlier" I mumbled, not actually even sure if he caught it or not.
"No problem" he said, walking over to my bed and sitting down on an empty chair next to it.
"How were you able to get me out of the water?" I asked. That had really been bothering me. I mean there was a chance he had jumped after me and been able to drag me back to dry ground, but… naah, there was no way that a guy like him would be strong enough.
"Just regular basics of lifesaving" he replied. He seemed nervous when he said this, which was more than enough to tell me he was lying, but since I couldn´t come up with a better explanation I left it at that.
"Okay…"
"…"
"…"
"You were right, you know…" I told him. I saw him blink, probably not realizing what I meant.
"You were right" I repeated "They do care"
I saw a small smile come to Mitarai´s lips.
"I just knew from experience that things aren´t always like they seem to be" he said. I nodded, realizing that this experience was something he wouldn´t tell even if I asked.
"…I´m not returning to school anymore" I told, not finding anything else to say.
"I see" he said. Then the uncomfortable silences returned again since neither of us didn´t know what to say.
"I´m going to change you know" Mitarai said suddenly "I won´t just stand around doing nothing while others get hurt anymore"
"You´re going to get beat up" I told him.
"That´s better than doing nothing" he said. Once again his eyes showed no sign about lies.
"I suppose you´re right" I said. After that we talked about many things, but not about school.
"I better leave; I still have my homework to do" Mitarai said suddenly, standing up.
"Okay" I said "Bye"
Mitarai nodded, saying: "I´ll see you tomorrow"
I sighed after he left. It seems like before things can start to turn good they need to be extremely bad. Well, it doesn´t matter anymore since I´m not alone anymore.
I´m not air anymore.
A.N: So I finally got this done. It´s not as good as I wanted it to be, but partly I wrote this to practice writing in first person´s POV. And of course I wanted to write about Mitarai, too. But this did have awfully little about the actual YYH… well whatever. I just wanted to write about school bullying so Mitarai was a pretty logical choice. I really like to write these hurt/comfort things… somehow they just seem easy to write, even if they turn out to be pretty bad ones. At one point this was supposed to have a second chapter, too: these same things but from Mitarai´s POV. This also had two other endings I had planned. First ending: Mitarai stops Yuri from making a suicide and Yuri doesn´t fall off of the bridge. Yuri still felt like her parents didn´t care, but she didn´t mind since she now had a friend, Mitarai. They went to school together next week and in couple of weeks Mitarai had made Yuri a happy girl who was never bullied again. Second ending: Yuri falls off of the bridge and Mitarai fails saving her. But as you saw, I ended up using option number three.
And before I forget: I might write a prequel for this to show how Mitarai became popular and maybe even a sequel someday too, but that won´t happen anytime soon. So anyway, if you have any questions about this just ask. And review too please. Bye!