There seems to be nowhere out. The flames inside the old junior high
singe the walls. The walls of my brother, Kazuma, and his old rival's
school crumbles before my eyes. The smoke becomes so thick, not even
Hiei's katana could cut through it. If only I knew where the exit was, or
more to the point where Kurama is right now. I heard him struggle with the
assailant earlier. I hope he's all right. I would be devastated if I
found him dead. The fire has not lightened up since this all began. What
happened earlier seems irrelevant right now.
Earlier in the day Kurama and I had arrived at the school. As a practicing physician, part of his schooling is to work with the health department at the school. His job is to attend all the kids' ailments. My purpose for being here is to set up with the education department. I am a marriage counselor, and I came today to teach the students about my profession and what it means to be in a marriage. Towards the end of the day, when the last student left the building, he and I were hanging around the hallways of the third floor. I glanced at him from across the hall as I stood shuffling papers my navy faux-leather briefcase. Meanwhile he was preparing to wrap up his day, his green duffle bag slung around his left shoulder. He looked so sexy in his all-white uniform. I love the way he flirted with me with those green eyes. The way he can look at me can melt my own heart. Makes a girl like me fall in love with him all over again.
I have no idea how I didn't notice him, but as we were getting ready to leave, a figure from a closet in the room I was in jumped out. I didn't even know who he was but I felt him reach around and grab me by his huge hairy arms. "Who are you?" "Don't speak he whispered. "Hey man, chill out," shouted Kurama from across the hall. He started crossing the hall, towards the estranged man. "Stay back," he commanded my husband hastily, pulling out a knife. The man put the blade to my throat. His breathing became quickened. His palms became sweaty. Nervousness clung to his voice. I had the feeling he had never committed such an act like this before. "Easy fellow," I whispered to him. Kurama crept closer to us, trying to calm the man down. "What is the matter?" The man started screaming at my husband. "I must have a wife. I have worked so hard on my marriage. But she don't love me. She left me. A man needs a wife." His demands continued in broken thoughts. "But why harm my wife, Sir? What do you want with her?" Kurama kept closing in on the man. "I said stay back. I want a wife. I need one. I have worked three years on the marriage. I love her, she don't anymore. She gone. I have to have one." The man screamed at the top of his lungs. His voice was becoming strained. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a roll of packaging tape. He taped my mouth shut and the last thing I remember is the man binding my hands. Suddenly I felt a blunt object, like a hardback book, bashing into my head.
When I came to, I could smell hot smoke drifting through the hallways. As I opened my eyes, a flume of smoke greeted me. I became startled to see the walls dressed in flames. The room felt like the inside of a kiln in use. Quickly I ripped apart the tape binding my arms and peeled the tape from my mouth. I see the hallways engulfed in a wall of fire. The corridors I once knew are now unrecognizable. I can barely see three feet in front of me. "Kurama, you there?" I call out to him. Maybe he made it out. But it is so hard to see or hear anything in this inferno. As I walk past one of the classrooms adjacent to the one I had just emerged from, I spy the body of a man dressed in pure white, lying on his stomach. "Kurama," I call out in a startled voice. Rushing into the room, I kneel quickly to his side. I roll him over into my arms, fearing him dead. His body feels listless, but I can still feel warmth in his skin and rosy color in his cheeks. His eyes still remain closed. Without hesitating I open his duffle bag and pull out two plaid handkerchiefs. I tie one of the handkerchiefs around my own mouth, and one around his. Lifting his body into my arms, I hurry him out the classroom door. Back in the tunnel of fire that once was just a hallway, I carry him. The once familiar school halls become a maze. Ceiling paneling crash like glass to the ground, the marble flooring becomes melted by the heat. I scuffle my feet quickly across the unforgiving tiles. Kurama's body settles heavy in my arms. "Come on stay with me," I request, my voice muffled by the gag. Just as I am about to give up hope for an exit out of the danger, my eyes focus on a stairwell. I have no idea if there is fire on all the floors or on this one particular floor. There is no time to guess about the floors below us. I focus on the flight of stairs leading to the rooftop. I remember Kazuma telling me how Yusuke used to use the rooftop as a means to ditch classes way back when. Without hesitation, knowing my husband could slip away from me forever, I ascend the staircase to the roof.
Pressing my back to the steel door handle, we quickly make it to the roof. Laying him on the graveled roof, I feel his pulse weak and his breathing becoming hampered. Quickly I untie the gags covering his mouth and my own. I notice Kurama's lips beginning to turn blue. I kneel down beside him, my butt sitting partially on the roof itself and halfway on my legs. "Don't leave me, please don't," I cried, tears burning my eyes. Placing my mouth over his, quickly breathing good air into his lungs. "Come on, please wake up. Please, Kurama don't die. I don't know what I would do without you," I sob, continuing to breathe air into him, and pumping the bad air by pressing underneath his ribcage. The tears in my eyes quickly changed from sorrow to desperation as I try to bring him back. Suddenly I feel his pulse reactivating, and his breathing becoming steady. His eyes open slowly and only slightly. "Shizuru, I." he struggles to talk, only to have his voice becoming unsteady whispers. "Don't try to talk, darling," I say in a hushed voice. I begin petting his forehead with the back of my left hand. My eyes staying with his eyes, willing to stay with his forever as long as the time would allow. In the distance I could hear the fast whirl of helicopter blades coming closer. The screams from fire truck sirens become louder.
The both of us were lifted immediately into the medical helicopter. At the hospital, in the Intensive Care Unit, I stay by his bed, waiting for him to reawaken. Peering at his face, it looks to me as if his sleep is troubled. Kurama's closed eyes quiver, his face squint, like something was on his mind. His eyes suddenly flutter open. He peers into my eyes, his own still looking tired. "Welcome back, darling," I smile, tears trickling from the ducts to the corners of my mouth. "Are you okay?" he asks, noticing the shine of the tears. "I am now, I was hoping to see you come back to me." He tried sitting up in the bed, struggling with every movement of his body. I kneel to the tiled floor next to his bed. Placing my hands on his shoulders, I ask him to lay back and relax. He refuses and sits up anyways. "I am so glad you are back with me," I start to cry, hugging him as tight as I could. "I don't know what I would do if you left Saito and myself. If you left my friends and yours, I would be.I couldn't." I bury my face into Kurama's chest, my eyes gushing with tears. Feeling his arms wrapping my body, his left hand holding my back, and while his right petting the long hair on the back of my head, the sorrow in my heart begins to lift. "I thought I was going to die, but I can't leave you. My mother persuaded me not to." "Your mother?" "While I was asleep, she appeared in my dreams. I thought about giving up, but her spirit came to me and told me I was not wanted in the realm of the dead, my presence not welcomed. She told me she knew it was me who wished her to life so long ago, now she wished the same to me. Shizuru, I don't want to leave you. You mean too much to me. You and Saito are the most precious people in my life. I could never abandon you." His words touch a cord in my heart. This time the tears change from grief to burning love surging my body and soul, all for the heart of the good man sitting before me.
(Later on we learn from Yusuke what had happened to the man who attacked us. Apparently he had been through a rough divorce from his wife, who had feared his violent temper. After I was knocked out, he came after Kurama with the knife. The two men struggled and the assailant grabbed my husband by the mouth and nose, knocking him out by asphyxiation. Then in a desperate attempt to cover his tracks, he had doused just the third floor with gasoline as well as pouring the gas on himself. Then in a final act he set himself on fire, using his own body as a torch. He committed suicide by being burned alive. Only the third floor was burned, the other two floors of the school remain untouched.)
Earlier in the day Kurama and I had arrived at the school. As a practicing physician, part of his schooling is to work with the health department at the school. His job is to attend all the kids' ailments. My purpose for being here is to set up with the education department. I am a marriage counselor, and I came today to teach the students about my profession and what it means to be in a marriage. Towards the end of the day, when the last student left the building, he and I were hanging around the hallways of the third floor. I glanced at him from across the hall as I stood shuffling papers my navy faux-leather briefcase. Meanwhile he was preparing to wrap up his day, his green duffle bag slung around his left shoulder. He looked so sexy in his all-white uniform. I love the way he flirted with me with those green eyes. The way he can look at me can melt my own heart. Makes a girl like me fall in love with him all over again.
I have no idea how I didn't notice him, but as we were getting ready to leave, a figure from a closet in the room I was in jumped out. I didn't even know who he was but I felt him reach around and grab me by his huge hairy arms. "Who are you?" "Don't speak he whispered. "Hey man, chill out," shouted Kurama from across the hall. He started crossing the hall, towards the estranged man. "Stay back," he commanded my husband hastily, pulling out a knife. The man put the blade to my throat. His breathing became quickened. His palms became sweaty. Nervousness clung to his voice. I had the feeling he had never committed such an act like this before. "Easy fellow," I whispered to him. Kurama crept closer to us, trying to calm the man down. "What is the matter?" The man started screaming at my husband. "I must have a wife. I have worked so hard on my marriage. But she don't love me. She left me. A man needs a wife." His demands continued in broken thoughts. "But why harm my wife, Sir? What do you want with her?" Kurama kept closing in on the man. "I said stay back. I want a wife. I need one. I have worked three years on the marriage. I love her, she don't anymore. She gone. I have to have one." The man screamed at the top of his lungs. His voice was becoming strained. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a roll of packaging tape. He taped my mouth shut and the last thing I remember is the man binding my hands. Suddenly I felt a blunt object, like a hardback book, bashing into my head.
When I came to, I could smell hot smoke drifting through the hallways. As I opened my eyes, a flume of smoke greeted me. I became startled to see the walls dressed in flames. The room felt like the inside of a kiln in use. Quickly I ripped apart the tape binding my arms and peeled the tape from my mouth. I see the hallways engulfed in a wall of fire. The corridors I once knew are now unrecognizable. I can barely see three feet in front of me. "Kurama, you there?" I call out to him. Maybe he made it out. But it is so hard to see or hear anything in this inferno. As I walk past one of the classrooms adjacent to the one I had just emerged from, I spy the body of a man dressed in pure white, lying on his stomach. "Kurama," I call out in a startled voice. Rushing into the room, I kneel quickly to his side. I roll him over into my arms, fearing him dead. His body feels listless, but I can still feel warmth in his skin and rosy color in his cheeks. His eyes still remain closed. Without hesitating I open his duffle bag and pull out two plaid handkerchiefs. I tie one of the handkerchiefs around my own mouth, and one around his. Lifting his body into my arms, I hurry him out the classroom door. Back in the tunnel of fire that once was just a hallway, I carry him. The once familiar school halls become a maze. Ceiling paneling crash like glass to the ground, the marble flooring becomes melted by the heat. I scuffle my feet quickly across the unforgiving tiles. Kurama's body settles heavy in my arms. "Come on stay with me," I request, my voice muffled by the gag. Just as I am about to give up hope for an exit out of the danger, my eyes focus on a stairwell. I have no idea if there is fire on all the floors or on this one particular floor. There is no time to guess about the floors below us. I focus on the flight of stairs leading to the rooftop. I remember Kazuma telling me how Yusuke used to use the rooftop as a means to ditch classes way back when. Without hesitation, knowing my husband could slip away from me forever, I ascend the staircase to the roof.
Pressing my back to the steel door handle, we quickly make it to the roof. Laying him on the graveled roof, I feel his pulse weak and his breathing becoming hampered. Quickly I untie the gags covering his mouth and my own. I notice Kurama's lips beginning to turn blue. I kneel down beside him, my butt sitting partially on the roof itself and halfway on my legs. "Don't leave me, please don't," I cried, tears burning my eyes. Placing my mouth over his, quickly breathing good air into his lungs. "Come on, please wake up. Please, Kurama don't die. I don't know what I would do without you," I sob, continuing to breathe air into him, and pumping the bad air by pressing underneath his ribcage. The tears in my eyes quickly changed from sorrow to desperation as I try to bring him back. Suddenly I feel his pulse reactivating, and his breathing becoming steady. His eyes open slowly and only slightly. "Shizuru, I." he struggles to talk, only to have his voice becoming unsteady whispers. "Don't try to talk, darling," I say in a hushed voice. I begin petting his forehead with the back of my left hand. My eyes staying with his eyes, willing to stay with his forever as long as the time would allow. In the distance I could hear the fast whirl of helicopter blades coming closer. The screams from fire truck sirens become louder.
The both of us were lifted immediately into the medical helicopter. At the hospital, in the Intensive Care Unit, I stay by his bed, waiting for him to reawaken. Peering at his face, it looks to me as if his sleep is troubled. Kurama's closed eyes quiver, his face squint, like something was on his mind. His eyes suddenly flutter open. He peers into my eyes, his own still looking tired. "Welcome back, darling," I smile, tears trickling from the ducts to the corners of my mouth. "Are you okay?" he asks, noticing the shine of the tears. "I am now, I was hoping to see you come back to me." He tried sitting up in the bed, struggling with every movement of his body. I kneel to the tiled floor next to his bed. Placing my hands on his shoulders, I ask him to lay back and relax. He refuses and sits up anyways. "I am so glad you are back with me," I start to cry, hugging him as tight as I could. "I don't know what I would do if you left Saito and myself. If you left my friends and yours, I would be.I couldn't." I bury my face into Kurama's chest, my eyes gushing with tears. Feeling his arms wrapping my body, his left hand holding my back, and while his right petting the long hair on the back of my head, the sorrow in my heart begins to lift. "I thought I was going to die, but I can't leave you. My mother persuaded me not to." "Your mother?" "While I was asleep, she appeared in my dreams. I thought about giving up, but her spirit came to me and told me I was not wanted in the realm of the dead, my presence not welcomed. She told me she knew it was me who wished her to life so long ago, now she wished the same to me. Shizuru, I don't want to leave you. You mean too much to me. You and Saito are the most precious people in my life. I could never abandon you." His words touch a cord in my heart. This time the tears change from grief to burning love surging my body and soul, all for the heart of the good man sitting before me.
(Later on we learn from Yusuke what had happened to the man who attacked us. Apparently he had been through a rough divorce from his wife, who had feared his violent temper. After I was knocked out, he came after Kurama with the knife. The two men struggled and the assailant grabbed my husband by the mouth and nose, knocking him out by asphyxiation. Then in a desperate attempt to cover his tracks, he had doused just the third floor with gasoline as well as pouring the gas on himself. Then in a final act he set himself on fire, using his own body as a torch. He committed suicide by being burned alive. Only the third floor was burned, the other two floors of the school remain untouched.)