From The Yu Yu Hakusho Case Files: Shadows of a Broken Memory

Chapter One: To End It All… A New Beginning

She stood before the window of her room, staring out across the endless sky. The stars flickered beautifully within the black velvety caress of the heavens as if signaling to all who could see that they were awake and alive. But she did not feel what they felt. The young girl of sixteen years felt dead inside. For months she slowly sank into the dark void of depression, feeling lost and alone in a world that she did not understand nor that understood her.

School was hell for her. Students passed her by without a single thought of the girl sitting alone in the cafeteria. The girl who stared sadly out of the window, watching her fellow students as they went about their business. Not even the teachers who usually seemed to enjoy picking on students in their time of sorrow or awkwardness seemed to notice her. No one cared. A single tear slowly rolled down her cheek reaching her jaw-line before falling to the ground below.

She raised her hand slowly placing it on the windowpane before slowly leaning forward to rest her forehead against the cold glass. She was tired of feeling this way. Feeling as if she had nothing left. The young girl stepped away from the window and walked over to her bed. As she sank down on the soft mattress she reached out towards her nightstand and opened the drawer. Slipping her hand inside she felt around trying to find the one thing that could make the hurting stop. When her fingers touched against the cold metal she almost felt a slight joy in her heart.

Being careful she picked up the metallic thing and raised it to her gaze. The razor blade glittered, glaring almost angrily back at her. The light causing it to flicker back at her, winking at her as if telling her that everything would be all right. She smiled weakly running her finger carefully over the side of the blade making sure not to cut her tender flesh just yet. "This will end it…. End it all," she whispered to no one but herself. Someone was listening, worried as they watched her.

Taking a deep breath, she let go. She let go of all her pain, all her sorrow, all her fear, all of her turmoil. She just let go. As the blade ran smoothly across the soft skin of her wrist she could feel the painful sting of the blood rising to the surface. Opening her eyes, her gray eyes stared at the blood as it rolled from the cut down the sides of her wrists. Taking great care she took the blade in her other hand and pressed the edge against her wrist again pulling the object towards her watching as more blood poured from the wounds.

The young girl's arms dropped to her sides as she waited. Waited for the darkness to overtake her, to take her away from this ugly world. Take her away from herself. Finally it would all be over… The sound of glass breaking echoed within her ears as she started to lose consciousness. She could barely feel the pair of arms wrapping around her body. A rough, callused hand was placed on her cheek and she could feel the sting of someone slapping her. "Aliya… Aliya, open your eyes," a voice called to her through the darkness.

Aliya tried to open her eyes but she was too tired. Her body was slowly becoming cold in the arms of the one that held her. "Dammit don't you dare die on me!" she heard him growl as he held her in his arms. Her head slowly rolled back, her body becoming completely limp. "Aliya!" The young girl could barely feel her body being shaken as she completely lost all consciousness. "I won't let you die."

The warmth of the sun slowly pulled her out of her sleep, drawing her into the woken world around her. Aliya let out a soft moan as she slowly opened her eyes. Wait… she was opening her eyes? The young girl stared ahead of herself letting her eyes adjust to sight once again before she turned her gaze to look about her. She was not in her room any longer. She was not sure where she was but it was obvious to her that she was no longer in her own apartment Aliya raised her hand to her forehead letting out a moan.

How had she survived? She had slit open her wrists to ensure that she would die but here she was wide-awake in another room. It was then that she realized her wrists had been bandaged, wrapped in gauze and bandages. What is going on here? Her thought was interrupted by the sound of a door opening and a gasp rang through the still air. The young girl turned her gaze towards the door of the room to notice a young man watching her with green eyes.

"I see you have finally awaken…" he said, his voice was calm almost soothing to her and somehow… familiar at the same time. "Yes…" Aliya said watching him carefully. He stood about five foot seven inches with shoulder length red hair that had been pulled back, stood out against his olive skin complexion. He wore a long sleeved white dress shirt with black slacks. In his hands he carried a tray of tea. "Who are you?" Aliya spoke in a soft halting voice as she watched the beautiful man as he walked further into the room.

"My name is Suichi Minamino," he said as he slowly placed the tray down on a table that she had just noticed was beside the bed. He focused his attention on pouring a cup of tea for her, preparing it without asking her how she liked it and held it out for her. "Drink some tea… it will help." Aliya slowly reached out and took the cup from him before raising it to her lips. She hesitated only a moment wondering if she should trust the man or not but his face presented such a gentleness that she could not help herself but to drink some of it.

"Its… delicious…" she whispered softly staring into the golden brown brew, feeling the steam raise from the surface and envelope her senses. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the young girl opened her lips to speak. "How… is it that I am here?" Aliya raised her eyes to look at him. For a split moment she thought she saw something in his eyes but it disappeared before she could be certain. "An associate of mine brought you to me…" Suichi said with an air of mystery. "Why?"

Suichi watched the young girl quietly noting that the cup of tea in her hands was starting to shake with the anxiety that she felt. He pressed his lips together remaining silent for a moment. "Why did he not let me die?" It was the question he knew she would ask him… the question he himself was not prepared to answer. "This is not the time to answer that question. You are still weak and need to rest more." The girl raised her eyebrow at him frowning slightly. "Rest? It seems to me that your "associate" robbed me of that right. All I wanted to do was to rest for all eternity to be… away from this world. To be free… but no that was too much to ask wasn't it?"

Suichi fought back the sigh that was threatening to spill forth from his lips. "Please…" he said calmly. "Don't you please, me…" she growled at him but stopped suddenly when she saw the flicker of anger flashing in his eyes. The young girl's gaze dropped to her cup before she raised it to her lips to drink. "I promise you that I will answer your questions when you are in a better state of mind. Right now… you need to finish your tea and rest." Suichi picked up the tray gently before walking over to the door. "I will be back in a couple of hours with dinner."

Aliya nodded her head not looking at him anymore. There was something about the anger in his eyes that was unsettling to her. She didn't understand what had upset him so much. She just wanted to understand why his friend had saved her from her fate. She had wanted to die and he took that from her. She deserved to know why he had chosen to do something like that but perhaps Minamino was right. She was indeed still tired and felt even more so as the warmth of the tea overwhelmed her body.

The young girl placed the cup on the table beside the bed and lay back gently. Finally she dared to raise her gaze to look up at Suichi and thought that she almost saw a flicker of emotion behind his eyes. "Rest…" he said calmly as he opened the door and stepped out shutting it behind him. Aliya's eyes drooped slowly before shutting completely.

Suichi looked down at the tray of tea in his hands feeling a presence walking towards him. "How is she?" The voice drew him from his inner most thoughts. Suichi raised his emerald eyes to watch the one who had spoken. "She isn't handling this as well as one would hope. Then again…" he walked past him. "One would expect such behavior from someone who tried to end their own life…" The man let out a growl.

"I don't care… she had no business doing what she did, Kurama…" "Hiei, you know as well as I do that there is more to this. That she felt…" Hiei growled softly turning his head away not wanting to hear any more. "I don't care what she felt… if she had succeeded we would have felt…" "Lost without her…" Suichi finished his friend's sentence.