Author's Note: This was written for the Rare Fanfiction Contest on the yyhfanfiction tumblr. (Check the tag #YYHFFRrareFFcontest for more information and more stories!) I'm a judge in this awesome contest and I'll even be writing some of the prizes, so this story is not eligible for winning. I just wrote it to contribute to the contest, not to win, but I guess it can be seen as an example of my writing for those that do win prizes. The contest is open until April 17, so there's still time to enter if you want to!
I don't think we saw enough about Atsuko in the anime, so I chose the category Canon Female-Centric Expansion and decided to write Atsuko's story. It was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you enjoy reading it!
ROYAL BLOOD
Fourteen year old Atsuko Urameshi was crying so hard that her eyes were hot and swollen, so she was stumbling blindly through the forest while pushing a fist against her trembling lips to muffle the sounds of her sobs. She hated that she was crying, hated how weak it made her feel, but her backpack bounced with every step and served as a reminder for why she was walking alone in the woods in the middle of the night. Every time the bottom of the bag hit against her lower back, she let out another sob and felt more hot tears squeeze out of the corners of her eyes to track down her cheeks and drip off her chin.
Despite all that, she still felt it when the air changed. Roots and twigs were still scratching at her ankles, but the air felt…heavier. There was a new weight pressing against her chest, and she stumbled to a stop. Her backpack felt heavy on her shoulders, and it was getting harder to take in a breath. She reached up and rubbed her fists against her eyes, furiously wiped at the wetness on her cheeks, and blew out a single breath as her head tipped back to look at the dark sky.
The dark red sky. Red sky, dark clouds, and flashes of golden lightning. Heavier air, which meant a probably different atmosphere. (Yeah, she paid attention that day in class.)
"I either breathed in the strongest hallucinogen ever or I'm in another world," Atsuko said quietly and looked at her surroundings. The trees were mostly bare, instead of brimming with greenery, and looked skeletal against the strangely colored sky. She started to laugh at the absurdity of everything, which quickly turned into her crying and sobbing again, and she looked up at the weird sky as she started to get lightheaded. "This is the worst day ever!"
The yell took too much out of her, and the world blurred at the edges as her knees buckled. Something sharp stuck in her right knee as she hit the ground, and she wrapped her arms tight around her stomach as she started to topple to the side. She hit the hard ground with a quiet thump and laid there struggling to pull in breaths of dense air, and she slowly pulled her legs up so that she was curled in on herself. She was alone, possibly in a different world, and her only possessions were strapped to her back and still bouncing along to the rhythms of her sobs. Definitely the worst day ever.
.xXx.
"Rest, child. You will be safe soon." Atsuko blinked as she registered the words, and a man smiled down at her. Because he was carrying her in his arms and…running? Everything around her was blurry, because the man was running so fast. She felt safe though, still a little lightheaded, and she groaned as she clenched her eyes shut and turned her face against the stranger's chest.
"Try to hurt me and I'll cut your balls off," Atsuko managed to groan out. Instead of dropping her, the bald man with the nice smile just laughed and continued to run. She had just enough time to think that was a weird reaction to her words before she became unconscious again.
.xXx.
"…sensed it." Atsuko woke up to the sound of the stranger's voice, but she kept her eyes closed and her breathing even. She was lying on something soft, something that felt like a bed, and the stranger had to be talking to someone else because she'd been unconscious. As far as he knew, she still was.
"It's faint, but it's there," a different voice said. A deeper voice that was much closer. A little too close for comfort, and it explained why the bed was tipped a little to the side. Someone was sitting next to her on the bed, a male someone, and Atsuko felt herself slowly starting to tense up. "I know you're awake, girl. You can't fool me."
"It was worth a shot," Atsuko grumbled and finally opened her eyes. She saw the strange guy who had carried her first; the tall bald man was standing across the room and leaning against the wall, and he smiled when he noticed her looking at him. Then she shifted her gaze to next to her and felt her eyes widening.
"Are you afraid of me, girl?" the man, if he was a man, sitting next to her asked. He smiled and showed off the sharp fangs in his mouth, but Atsuko had already figured out he wasn't exactly human. His hair was long and white, and there was a pair of a violet eyes looking down at her. He was also huge. Well, she couldn't tell how tall he was since he was sitting down, but he was shirtless and looked huge to her.
"What are you?" she asked instead of answering him.
"I'm a demon." Atsuko nodded, because of course he was. She'd been abducted by demons after stumbling into a different world. It was the perfect ending to the worst day of her life. "And you don't belong here, little human."
"No shit." The words just kind of slipped out of her, and the large demon sitting next to her laughed lowly. Atsuko was still watching him warily when he stretched a hand out, and she moved without thinking.
There was a loud clapping sound as she slapped his hand away from her, and she scrambled upwards and then backwards. The thin blanket that had been draped over her fell away as she hurried to put distance between herself and the demon, and a quiet sound was trapped in her throat as her back hit a solid wall. Her arms were wrapped tight around her middle as everything suddenly came flooding back to her, and her eyes narrowed on the demon looking curiously at her. He looked like he was studying her, trying to understand why she'd moved so suddenly, and she had an absurd impulse to bare her teeth at him. His eyes ran over her shivering form before meeting her narrowed gaze, and he laced his fingers between his spread thighs.
"I will not harm you, or the child you carry." Okay, so maybe her defensive position was a little obvious. She was guarding her stomach, her still flat stomach, and she felt her eyes burning.
"I thought about it," she admitted in a whisper. The demon's head tilted to the side, as if asking her to continue, and Atsuko licked her dry lips. "I'm only fourteen. I'm still a kid, so how can I have a kid? My boyfriend already left me, said he never wanted kids, and my parents…they kicked me out. How can I take care of a kid? I don't have a house, and I'm alone. So I thought about…I thought about making it disappear."
The obvious reason was to make her life easier. She didn't care about getting her loser boyfriend back; he'd already shown that he was a good-for-nothing lowlife, but her parents might take her back if she wasn't pregnant. The real reason she'd thought about it was because she didn't think she'd make a good mother. She still didn't think that she'd make a good mother. This kid was already fucked because he was going to be stuck with her. Stuck with a homeless kid who managed to accidentally walk into a different world and was probably about to be eaten by demons.
"Do you want this child?" The question startled her, and she looked up from where she'd been looking at her stomach to see those strange colored eyes looking at her. Really looking at her, like he could see her soul. Like he'd be able to tell if she lied.
Did she want her child?
"Yes," she whispered. She made a mistake by getting pregnant. It definitely wasn't planned, and the course of her life was going to be changed forever because she forgot to make sure her loser boyfriend was wearing a condom. Because she wasn't on any kind of birth control. It was a mistake…but, it was her mistake. Not the kid's. The kid didn't ask to be brought into existence, but now there was a life inside of her. A life that was going to be hers to love, to protect, to look out for. She met the demon's eyes, realized the purple color was kinda pretty for such an intimidating looking dude, and said in a stronger voice, "Yes."
"Then you will have this child. Hokushin, bring her something to drink and eat. Keep the air around her pure." The bald man bowed his head, so at least now she knew his name. The demon stood up after that, and he wasn't abnormally tall. Maybe only six feet, but there was something about him. Maybe it was the energy around him that made it feel like he was taking up the entire room. Or maybe the pregnancy hormones were making her crazy.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked him. His back was to her, so all she could really see was all of his long white hair.
"All in due time, girl. Look after her," he instructed and then left the room. Atsuko turned to look at the other dude, who was probably a demon too, and raised a brow.
"Do you have any allergies?" Atsuko slowly shook her head, and Hokushin bowed his head in her direction. "I'll return shortly."
Atsuko was suddenly alone in the room, and her wide eyes took in everything around her. The walls and floor were made of light brown stones, and the only thing in the room was the small bed she was lying on. Everything was empty, but she was breathing easier. Was that because someone was somehow purifying the air in this room? If she left the room, would it become too hard for her to breathe again? It wasn't something that she wanted to chance, because she had to look out for more than just herself now. She had to look out for the baby too.
.xXx.
For the next six weeks, the same pattern was followed. Atsuko was allowed to move around the palace as she pleased, a real freaking palace, as long as there was someone with her to constantly keep the air around her purified. Hokushin, the tall bald demon, brought her breakfast and dinner each day. Throughout the day though, she spent all of her time with Hokushin's younger sister. Chizue was an inch under six feet with lean muscles under pale skin, but she was quickly becoming Atsuko's favorite demon. The female demon was teaching her about Demon World, about the different territories and how things worked, and Atsuko loved listening to her many stories.
"So…he's dying?" Atsuko was sitting at the head of her bed with her back pressed against the wall, and Chizue was sitting in the center of the bed with her long legs crossed under her. She was wearing a blue dress today, with slits on the sides so her legs could move more freely, and her usual sword was propped against the side of the bed and easily within Chizue's reach.
"Yes, Lord Raizen is dying. We do not think he will last for much longer. A few decades, maybe," Chizue shrugged and looked down at her lap. Her long black hair was being held up in a ponytail and draped over her shoulder, and she was idly twirling the end of it around her finger.
"Is he sick or something?" Atsuko hadn't seen Raizen since the first time she woke up, but she'd gotten a good look at him. He hadn't looked sick, but looks could be deceiving.
"It's a personal matter," Chizue answered and glanced up. Her brown eyes were so dark that they appeared black, and Atsuko could see the pain in her eyes. Raizen was more than just Chizue's king, she talked like they were old friends, and it was clear that she was upset about him dying.
"I'm sorry," Atsuko said quietly. Her own friends had drifted away when they learned about her condition, so she couldn't imagine what Chizue was going through. Especially since it sounded like demons lived for a lot longer than humans. From the way Chizue talked, her and Hokushin had been with Raizen for centuries. Atsuko wasn't even two decades old yet, so she couldn't fathom being alive for that long.
"Enough of that! Let's talk about something more fun. How are you feeling?" Every few days, Chizue would grin and ask her that. A small part of Atsuko wondered if she was being kept around because these demons liked eating babies, but the loudest part of her believed that Chizue was reporting to Raizen. Now Atsuko just needed to find out why.
.xXx.
"We've been over this, Hokushin. I'm not eatin' anythin' tonight," Atsuko mumbled against her pillow. She was lying on her side, with her knees pressed against the slight swell of her stomach, and she was doing her best to ignore the nausea coursing through her. The last time Hokushin walked into her room, she'd caught one whiff of the food he'd been carrying and then immediately started vomiting. It hadn't been pretty.
She listened as the door closed and then as feet moved across the floor, and she groaned as she forced her head up so she could politely tell Hokushin to leave her the hell alone. There was just one problem. Hokushin wasn't the one walking towards her. It wasn't Chizue either, who sometimes visited her after dinner. Violet eyes looked down at her in amusement, and Atsuko swallowed audibly as Raizen sat down on the edge of the bed. His hip was next to her knees and he was turned so that he was facing her, and Atsuko twisted so that the back of her head was on the pillow and she could look up at the large demon.
"You've been avoiding me," Atsuko accused. She'd been in Tourin, one of the three demon territories, for three months now. She was five months along and showing, but she hadn't seen Raizen since that first day. The only demons she saw were Hokushin, Chizue, and the cooks on occasion.
"I have," Raizen said in the same deep tone that she remembered. It should have been menacing, or at least scary, but Atsuko felt oddly comforted instead.
"Why?" It was a simple question, just one little word, but Raizen's sigh was long. Like how she sighed whenever her history teacher started a lecture in droll monotone voice. Yeah, the lectures were so boring that Atsuko had taken to reading dictionaries in class to entertain herself. So, now she knew what droll meant.
"Can I tell you a bedtime story?" The tone was almost teasing and Raizen was grinning at her, sharp enough to show the points of his fangs, but his eyes looked dark. Atsuko was already lying down though, and she'd heard enough about the Fearsome King Raizen from Hokushin and Chizue to easily decide to humor him. She snuggled down against her fluffy mattress and pillow, exaggerated her wiggling to make a point, and then met the demon's dark eyes.
"Does it have a happy ending?" Raizen shifted so that he had one leg pulled up onto the bed, but Atsuko still didn't feel afraid at his close presence. She should be afraid of this demon, the demon that she still occasionally suspected was keeping her around for a snack, but she didn't feel even an ounce of fear as the light in the room highlighted his non-human features. The fangs, the slight points to his ears, and those dark eyes.
"Most bedtime stories in Demon World don't end happily. Now, be quiet and listen."
Atsuko narrowed her eyes, but that just gentled Raizen's smile. Then he began speaking. It didn't take Atsuko very long to catch on that the young demon he was talking about was himself, but she was still surprised when he started talking about a human woman. The more he talked, the more of the story that he revealed, the more the pieces started to make sense. Raizen was injured in the Human World and somehow managed to fall in love with a human…He talked about how the demon had to leave his lover and the vow he made to never consume human flesh again, and that was why he was dying. Dying soon, according to Chizue. Although demons measured time a little differently than humans did.
"I don't know if what you're doing for her is impressive or idiotic," Atsuko said when Raizen stopped talking. Nearly a thousand years. He'd been starving himself for nearly a thousand years, for his human lover. Atsuko couldn't get a guy to stick around for more than a month or two.
"You have her spirit, and her eyes." When Raizen's hand hovered over the space in front of her face, Atsuko rolled her head against the pillow so that his claws brushed over the swell of her cheek right under her eye. "There was such strength in her eyes. A fierceness that you carry as well."
"You sure that doesn't come from your side?" Because it was really starting to click now. His human lover got pregnant, and here Atsuko was nearly a thousand years later. "How do you know I got anything from either of you?"
"I can sense it in you. The echoes of my power are weak, but it's there. Even Hokushin could sense it when he passed you in that forest. It was my energy that he sensed." Raizen was still idly stroking her cheek, but the movement was soothing. It was making her eyelids heavy. She didn't want to sleep though, because this was only her second time meeting Raizen. Only her second time, and probably her last.
"You're going to send me away," Atsuko realized. For some reason, that thought cut through her sharper than her own father telling her to leave while her mother looked silently at the floor. Raizen brushed her cheek one last time and then pulled away, and Atsuko reacted on instinct. She reached up to grab his hand with one of hers and marveled at the way his larger hand completely enveloped hers. She wasn't a weakling. Even at fourteen, she'd knocked out grown men with a strong right hook. Raizen didn't make her feel weak though.
"The hunger is worsening at a faster pace. There's a chance, in my final days, that I might become mad. I will not chance you, or the child, being here when that happens." Raizen was looking at their hands as well as he spoke, and Atsuko felt her face wrinkling in confusion.
"That's real nice of you and everything, but I don't have anything to go back to. What do you care for anyway? Maybe you won't go all cannibal on me, and everything will work out. If it doesn't, why do you care?" The hand around hers tightened into a fist, forcing her hand to curl into a fist as well, and she was suddenly looking into dark eyes again.
"The number of past generations does not matter. You are still my daughter, and I will not harm you." Stupid pregnancy hormones, she was starting to tear up. Her own direct biological father sent her away for being so shameful, for getting pregnant and saying she was keeping the baby, but her ancestral father from who-knows-how-many generations ago wanted to keep her safe?
"I'll be alone if you send me away. I don't want to be alone." Here, she at least had Chizue and Hokushin. Raizen gentled the hold on her hand and then reached out with his free hand to brush the tears from her cheeks, and his smile was small and gentle as she sniffled.
"Chizue will go with you to the Human World, to the world you belong in. She'll provide you with the correct currency and keep you safe. You, and your child, will always be cared for."
Atsuko couldn't help it. One moment she was blinking up at Raizen, who'd been talking in a low voice like he was making some kind of solemn vow, and then she was crying. Full-out, no holds barred, ugly crying. She quickly rolled into a sitting position and threw her arms around Raizen's shoulders as she started to sob in earnest, and she felt him stiffen before slowly relaxing and wrapping his arms around her. She cried onto his shoulder and clutched at fistfuls of his hair as he ran soothing hands along her back, and it wasn't long before she was cradled in his lap and still crying. He rocked her and made deep humming sounds low in his throat, and she cried at the unfairness of it all. Her child wouldn't have this. Wouldn't have any kind of grandfather, or even a father, and she wouldn't either after tonight.
"You will never be alone, Atsuko. Do you know why?" Her sobs had died down into sniffles now, and she unwound her arms from Raizen's neck so she could wipe at her cheeks. Once she felt decent enough, she pulled back and blinked sore eyes up at Raizen. He still had one arm braced against her back since she was still sitting in his lap, and he was so gentle as he placed a clawed hand over the slight swell of her stomach.
"Because of my little fighter?" she asked with a watery smile. Boy, girl, it didn't matter. Any child of Atsuko Urameshi's was going to be a fighter. She placed her hand over Raizen's as he nodded, and he twisted his wrist so that he could grab her hand. He extended her arm, and he must have trusted her to hold herself steady because he moved his other arm so that the tip of one claw could trace a vein along her inner forearm.
"And because you have my blood." Raizen's eyes rose to meet hers as he held both of her hands and rested them against her stomach, and Atsuko continued to look into his dark eyes. "Never forget, my daughter, that the blood of a king runs in your veins. You are stronger than you've yet to realize."
"For this kid's sake, let's hope so," Atsuko sighed and slumped against Raizen's chest. The demon was huge, even if Chizue had lamented more than once about Raizen wasting away, and Atsuko's smaller body easily fit against his front.
"The child will be strong, like their mother," Raizen said as an arm wrapped around her back once again. His other hand was hovering over her stomach, until she pushed his hand against her shirt and showed him that she wasn't afraid of him. She'd never really been afraid of him.
"Like their great-great-whatever-grandfather, I hope," Atsuko thought as she turned her face against Raizen's chest. Something was telling her to enjoy this moment, to etch it into her memory, because she was about to lose it.
"Hold me until I fall asleep?" she asked around a yawn. She was exhausted, it wouldn't be long before she was asleep, but she wanted to spend her last waking moments with Raizen.
"As you wish." Raizen was gentle as he held her, and she smiled as he started to hum. He sounded rusty, like it'd been a very long time since he hummed a song, but it was a nice sound. It was going to make a nice memory, she thought.
.xXx.
The next morning, Atsuko woke up to Chizue's bright smile and the news that she was finally going back to her own world. With Chizue along for the ride, of course.
.xXx.
"How do I make it stop?" Atsuko asked her companion. Chizue's laugh was loud but went unnoticed in the full park, and Atsuko crossed her arms over the swell of her stomach as she watched a small group of kids run by.
"We've been over this, little one. Being in Demon World awakened your spiritual awareness. You'll always see them now," Chizue said and grinned over at her.
The female demon looked human, especially in her jeans and light blue blouse. Her long black hair was in the same high ponytail as always, and her nearly black eyes glittered in the sunlight as she laughed at the pout on Atsuko's face. The man giving out ice creams to the little kids, the one pushing around a cart, didn't look all that human. Atsuko could see some kind of giant lizard tail poking out from around the corner of his cart. Ever since she'd returned to the Human World, she'd been able to see things. Demons and ghosts, true forms, and sometimes she could just sense things about people. It was confusing and frustrating, but Chizue thought it was hilarious. Like Atsuko was a child discovering something for the first time. (Which Atsuko was. A child. Her fifteenth birthday was two weeks after her set due date, June twenty-sixth.)
"I can almost handle the ghosts. They're just a little see-through, but the dude has a tail!" Atsuko hissed. Chizue's head fell back as she laughed, and the sound fit in with all of the other loud sounds in the park.
"Don't be so judgmental. You humans look funny to most demons, you know," Chizue said with another bright grin. Then she sat up a little straighter and clapped her hands. "Now! Have you had enough sunshine time? You're not overheated, are you?"
"It's not even all that hot out here. Anyone ever tell you that you worry too much?" Atsuko's tone was sullen, but…hmm. If she was being honest, she liked that someone fussed over her. Chizue had quickly become her best friend, and the female demon was always looking out for her.
"Not really. Maybe it's just you," Chizue said and fluttered her lashes. That got a laugh out of Atsuko, finally, and she rolled her eyes as she struggled to sit up straight. She only had about five weeks to go now. Five weeks until she'd get to meet her son.
.xXx.
"Oh! What about Kioshi? The book says that it means silent, and isn't that what all mothers want? A nice quiet little boy?" Atsuko thought it over and quickly shook her head.
When they first returned to the Human World, Atsuko had no idea what to expect. She'd still been surprised when Chizue met with some people, before she finally exchanged a bag of something and some whispered words with a dude with giant freaking horns, and then they suddenly had money. A lot of it. Enough for the rent on a good-sized home, with two bedrooms and a nice-sized basement that Chizue slept in, and Atsuko had a bank account. In her name. Chizue's Human World contacts had certainly been busy. Atsuko was newly emancipated, legally her own boss with a bank account that had regular monthly deposits from a savings account, and she'd just gotten her GED two weeks ago so she wouldn't have to worry about school or being a drop-out.
So now here she was, sitting in her son's room, while her best friend stretched out on the floor like a lazy cat. Chizue was holding a book up in the air, and Atsuko was very carefully painting white trees onto the light blue walls. (Atsuko had wanted to paint the baby's room green, but she'd made the mistake of sending Chizue out for the paint. The demon had returned with light blue paint and a shrug as she explained that all the stores she'd went to had run out of green paint. Atsuko hadn't even been surprised and decided it was easier to just go with it. In retaliation, she'd bought a dark green crib and matching curtains. They clashed horribly with the light blue walls, but it was the principle of the thing.)
"The kid's got demon blood. He'll never be the silent type," Atsuko said and continued painting on a little white tree along the border of the room. She heard pages rustling, which meant Chizue was looking for a new name to suggest. Atsuko didn't really want a silent kid anyway. Kids were supposed to be loud, right? She'd always had to be quiet in her home, but she didn't have to have that rule. If her son wanted to laugh and yell, he could.
"Point. Alright. Taiki, it means great big tree. So the kid'll match the walls," Chizue said with a few quiet giggles. Atsuko glared over her shoulder, and Chizue looked away from her book long enough to grin at her before flipping through the pages again.
"I'll know what to name him when I see him." Chizue groaned, loudly and dramatically, because that was the same thing Atsuko had been saying ever since they found out she was having a boy. She heard more rustling behind her, which meant that Chizue wasn't giving up, but neither was she.
"I found it! Atsuko! I found it!" Atsuko looked over her shoulder to see Chizue up on her knees and slowly shuffling in her direction, and she waved the book of children's names as she caught Atsuko's eyes. "Yusuke! It means ghost helper!"
"Bad demon!" Chizue was already laughing as Atsuko flicked her paintbrush, which got white paint on Chizue's jeans and the carpet, but the carpet was light so it was barely noticeable. Chizue fell onto her side as she continued to giggle uncontrollably, and Atsuko felt her lips twitching as she fought not to smile. Ghost helper? Like she'd saddle a kid with a demon ancestor with that name after she'd received the ability to actually see ghosts?
.xXx.
The sound of the door slamming shut woke Atsuko up, and she blearily looked at her clock next to the bed. It was just after two in the morning. It wasn't unusual for Chizue to come and go at odd hours, especially if she was hungry, but she was normally quieter about coming in. Atsuko strained her ears, and she could hear shuffling footsteps. Definitely unlike the usual light-footed Chizue. The footsteps moved past her bedroom and towards the bathroom, and Atsuko thought she heard a quiet grunt. It took her a moment to get out of her bed, she was just about ready to pop at this point, but she managed to heave herself to her feet and then made her way out of her bedroom.
"Chizue? You okay?" Atsuko called out. She heard a quiet laugh, followed by a pained grunt, and she hurried her steps. She stepped into the bathroom and froze two steps past the doorway, and her eyes went wide as she grabbed at the sink counter. She felt light-headed and nauseas as Chizue's dark eyes met hers, and bile was burning the back of her throat.
"Do I look that bad?" Chizue asked. She tried to laugh and started to cough up blood, and Atsuko staggered the few more steps to the bathtub. She wanted to kneel down and get a closer look at her friend, but she wasn't sure if she'd be able to get back up.
"Hospital…I'll call for an ambulance." Atsuko started to turn around, but fingers wrapped around her wrist and stopped her. She turned and looked down into the bathtub, and the only thing she could see was red. Chizue was bleeding from more wounds than Atsuko could count. She could see flashes of dark pink under the slick blood, from where Chizue had been completely cut open, and Chizue was starting to shake now.
"I'm not human, so there's nothing the humans can do for me." Chizue's lips quirked, like she wanted to smile, and Atsuko slowly lowered herself down onto her knees. The hand around her wrist shifted to grab hers, to lace their fingers together, and Atsuko gripped the bloody hand in both of hers.
"What happened? Who did this?" Chizue was a demon. A strong one, even with the limitations she had to put on herself to stay in the Human World.
"I was eating, some asshole that was trying to stab a guy. The thankfully not-stabbed guy ran away, so I figured I'd eat the would-be murderer. Cleaning up the streets, right?" Atsuko felt her eyes burning as her fingers slipped against Chizue's skin, slipped in the still fresh blood, and Chizue's lips were shivering even as she smiled.
"Going to clean up the streets tonight?" That's what Atsuko asked when Chizue got ready to leave late at night. Atsuko wasn't all for demons eating humans, but Chizue promised to only eat the people that the world was better off without. She had a particular fondness for devouring murderers.
"Never even saw the damn psychic coming. Got me good though. My fault. Should've been paying attention." A human psychic…humans with actual spirit energy, not just spiritual awareness, that killed demons to keep other humans safe. Atsuko knew that the human psychic had probably thought they were doing the right thing, but she hated them in that moment. Hated whoever it was that did this to her friend.
"If a human hospital can't help you, what about a demon one? How do I get you to Demon World?" Chizue's eyes closed as she laughed, and a strangled sound came out of Atsuko's throat as more blood and something else slipped out of Chizue's stomach.
"I've already…called for…-shin." She'd slurred out her brother's name, but Atsuko knew what she meant. Hokushin and Chizue could hear each other. It wasn't quite telepathic. They couldn't share messages, but they always knew if the other was hurt or in danger.
"So you're going to be okay," Atsuko rushed out and gripped the hand between hers a little harder. Chizue's grip was loosening, and there were long pauses in between her breaths. Her eyes slowly opened, and she tried to smile again.
"I'm sorry, my friend. I really wanted to stay here with you. I wanted to take care of you, and the little one."
"Then stay! Chizue! You have to stay! I can't do this alone!" Atsuko felt like her skin was too tight, and she shook Chizue's hand and arm as the demon closed her eyes and then didn't reopen them.
"Never…alone. Be strong, Atsuko, okay? For yourself and for Yu-"
It wasn't like in the movies. There wasn't a loud dramatic gasp or some loud wail. One moment Chizue was lightly gripping her hand, and the next moment there was nothing. It was quick and quiet and wrong. How could someone disappear between one moment and the next? She knew Chizue was gone even as she screamed her name and shook her, even as the blood on her hands turned tacky and darkened. Her friend was gone.
.xXx.
"King Raizen will send someone to look after you. Perhaps I could-"
"No." Hokushin was speaking with silent tears still tracking down his cheeks as he looked down at his younger sister's body. He'd been crying steadily and silently since he stepped into the bathroom and all through Atsuko's explanation, and she looked up at him directly for the first time. She was sitting with her back against the wall, next to the bathtub, and there was still vomit in the toilet that needed to be flushed.
"You shouldn't be alone." Atsuko had her bloodied hands lying in her lap, and she looked down at the faint blue lines over the inside of her wrist. She was still alive, her son was still alive, so she wasn't alone.
"I can take care of myself now. Unless you're going to take the money away?" If the money was taken away, she'd get a job. She'd figure it out.
"You will continue to receive monthly installments for as long as you live," Hokushin said distractedly. Atsuko nodded at that and managed to use the wall to get herself to her feet. She shrugged off Hokushin's help, refused the simple offer of assistance, and ambled over to the sink to scrub at the blood on her hands.
"I don't need a babysitter. We'll be fine," Atsuko whispered as she scrubbed her hands under scalding hot water. Demons couldn't stay in Human World without the possibility of being killed, and she wasn't going to let another friend get killed because of her. She couldn't handle it.
"You are truly a daughter of Raizen," Hokushin said quietly. That nearly broke her apart, but she bit the inside of her lip and held herself together. She couldn't think about Raizen right now. She didn't want to think about anything.
Atsuko couldn't look at the bathtub again, but she didn't want to just leave. Even though sitting in the bathroom with Chizue's dead body for hours while waiting for Hokushin had felt like torture. Chizue was her closest friend, the closest friend she'd ever had, but Hokushin was a friend too. He'd provided for her, asked after her, and smiled at her dumb jokes. He'd found her dying in a demon forest and had rescued her, and now his sister was dead because of her.
"I'm sorry." She'd reached up to grip Hokushin's shoulder, and she felt his hand lightly cover her own. "I'm so fucking sorry."
"Rest now, I'll take care of everything."
.xXx.
After nearly twenty-four hours of sleep, Atsuko woke up and slowly walked around her home. The bathroom was spotless, like her best friend hadn't bled out in the bathtub. The basement was empty, completely cleaned out. There wasn't a trace of Chizue anywhere in the little house. It was almost as if the demon had never existed at all, and Atsuko felt like she couldn't breathe as she noticed all of the little missing things. Even Chizue's toothbrush was gone.
The last room she went into was the baby's room. It still smelled a little like paint, from where Atsuko had painted on the trees, and her eyes burned as she looked at the light blue walls. Her feet shuffled against the carpet as she walked farther into the room, and her fingers curled around the dark green wood of the crib. Chizue had hated the crib, said it threw off the whole room, but she'd been grinning when she said it. Nestled in the crib, on top of a bundle of pale yellow blankets, was the little blue rabbit Chizue had picked out for the baby. It was the only thing left now to remind Atsuko that Chizue had been real.
She fell asleep on the floor in the baby's room that night, with the little blue rabbit held tight to her chest.
.xXx.
Ten perfect fingers. Ten little toes. A cute little button nose. Wide brown eyes. A tuft of black hair.
Her little boy was perfect as he laid in her arms, and Atsuko cried as she rocked him and held him close to her chest. She gave birth alone, with just nurses and the doctor in the room. There'd been no one to hold her hand or to tell her that everything would be okay. There was just the memory of Raizen telling her that she was strong as she screamed and brought a new life into the world, and now she was alone in her hospital room as she cried and rocked her newborn son.
Sometime later, maybe minutes or possibly hours, the door opened to let in a nurse. Atsuko listened as the nurse told her that her son was healthy, but she already knew that. Her little boy was strong. He was the descendant of a king, and he was loved. She'd never known she could love so fiercely until they'd put him in her arms and he'd blinked up at her. So she didn't need some stranger to tell her anything about her son.
"Have you picked out a name?" the nurse asked last. Atsuko ran the back of her fingers over a petal-soft cheek and smiled as her son turned into the touch. Yeah, now that she'd looked into his eyes and seen him, she knew his name.
"Yusuke. His name is Yusuke Urameshi."
.xXx.
"This is my punishment. I decided to stop seeing, and I was a bad mother. I was a bad mother and now I'm being punished," Atsuko thought as she sat on the floor of her home.
People bowed to her and paid their respects, and she watched with dulled eyes as they knelt in front of a picture of her son. This pain…it was never-ending. When she'd opened the door to see a cop, she thought that Yusuke had been caught fighting again. (She knew he'd be fighter. She'd always known he'd be a fighter.) Instead the cop had said there had been an accident and said he was sorry for her loss, and she'd decked him right in the face. Felt the satisfying crunch as his jaw cracked under her knuckles, and his partner had to restrain her as she cried out. As she tried to scream so loud that she wouldn't be able to hear them.
Something inside of her had broken open after hearing the other cop's words. Just a simple: he's gone. Because there was no way that her Yusuke could be gone. Not her son. She'd seen his body though, seen the stillness that she'd tried so hard to forget, and she still felt broken open inside. Broken open and empty. Like a giant chasm had been carved out of her soul, out of her very being, because her son was gone. She couldn't even reply to the people who tried to mourn with her, because they didn't understand. How could they?
"This is my fault, isn't it? I didn't appreciate him the way he deserved. Did he even know how much I loved him? I can't remember if I even told him before he left…I'm so sorry, Yusuke. I am so sorry for not being the mother that I wanted to be for you."
Yusuke was barely out of diapers when Atsuko decided that she couldn't take it anymore. Everywhere she went, there were demons and ghosts. She knew things about people that she shouldn't know, that she couldn't know naturally, and she couldn't shut it out. She tried, over and over, to stop seeing. Nothing she did worked, except for the drinking. At first it didn't take much, but it took more and more as the years dragged on. By the time Yusuke was old enough to form lasting memories, she was an alcoholic trying to shut out everything she didn't want to know about. No more demons. No more ghosts. She lived in a daze, and she lost herself.
She lost Yusuke.
"Yus-uke." She was breaking open, breaking apart, and she shook as she struggled to hold herself together.
"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough for you."
How could her son be gone? Her Yusuke? Raizen promised her. He told her that her child would be strong, but Yusuke was gone now. All of that strength, all of his potential, was just gone. From one moment to the next, he disappeared. He left and now she was alone. Alone and broken open, with tears spilling over. None of it was enough though. Not enough to bring him back.
The people in her home slowly left, one-by-one and some in groups, until she was alone again. She looked up at the picture of Yusuke and realized that she didn't even remember making the arrangements for his wake. She'd been in a fog ever since she'd heard the news, but she could see clearly for the moment. He'd been surprised when she snapped the picture, because she'd done it on a whim. The carpet was rough under her knees as she crawled towards the picture, and she knelt in front of the alter that'd been prepared for him.
"Come back to me, Yusuke. I'll do better. I'll be better. Just, please, come back."
.xXx.
Atsuko's prayers were answered, and her son came back. Her Yusuke came back, and she stayed sober. She stayed sober long enough to see the changes in her son, to realize what had happened, and then she got so drunk that she managed to black-out for a few hours. Yusuke didn't just have spirit awareness. She could see the energy that surrounded him, and she knew just enough to know what that meant. Because her son was a fighter, and he'd do a lot of fighting with that kind of power.
So she broke her promise and got so drunk that she couldn't see the brilliant light that surrounded her son. Made sure that her vision was too blurry to see the echoes of Raizen in his eyes. Pretended that she didn't know he was risking his life to face down demons. Cried when she felt his life-force fade and then return stronger than ever. She knew the moment that he died for a second time, and she knew the exact moment that he was revived. Her eyes had been closed, she'd been sober for the first time in weeks, and all she'd been able to see behind her closed eyelids was a dark violet.
.xXx.
"I'm going on a trip, Ma. Probably won't be back for a while, so don't worry, okay?" Yusuke reached up to rub the back of his neck, and Atsuko's head rolled across the back of the couch.
"Pick me up some refreshments on the way back, would ya?" she slurred. She wasn't even drunk, but Yusuke didn't need to know that. He didn't need to know that she'd just cracked open the bottle on the table and that she'd only had one glass that day. Because she'd been waiting for this moment, when he would tell her that he was leaving, and she'd wanted to be clear-headed for it.
"You got it, Ma," he said and smiled. It was wide and showed off his teeth, and she thought she saw the flash of fangs. He had a bag over his shoulder and started for the door, and Atsuko sat up on the couch. Her elbows were braced against her knees, and one hand dangled in the open space between her legs while her other hand reached out to trace around the rim of the empty glass sitting on the table in front of her.
"Hey, Yusuke?" He paused with the door open but turned to look directly at her, and Atsuko looked him over. Made sure to really look at him. Maybe she wasn't as strong as Raizen thought she'd be, but Yusuke? Her son was a fighter. He was strong. Yusuke had the blood of a king running through his veins. "I love you, kid."
"I love you too, Ma." With one last smile and a quick wave, he walked out the door.
Atsuko quickly poured another drink and gulped it down, and she ignored the way it felt like her chest was breaking open as Yusuke's energy got further and further away. Ignored the hot tears running down her cheeks, because Yusuke needed this. He needed to go to Demon World. He needed to meet Raizen. This was the way things were meant to happen. Who knew? Maybe when he came back, she'd go visit with him. See Raizen for one last time. That was a nice thought…Her and Yusuke, sitting and talking with Raizen. If she closed her eyes hard enough, she could almost picture it.
She reached out blindly to pour another drink and knocked the bottle over, and she slowly opened her eyes. Dark liquid had spilled out of the tipped over bottle to drip onto the table, and she tapped her fingers next to the little puddle. Maybe it was finally time to stop. No more drinking. She'd clean her act up for real, and she'd be ready for when Yusuke came back. This time…this time she'd tell him the truth. Tell him about how she'd accidentally stumbled into Demon World and was rescued by Hokushin. About her best friend, Chizue, who had picked out his name and his favorite stuffed rabbit. She'd tell him about the first time she saw Raizen…about how proud she was to be Raizen's descendant, and how she was even more proud to be his mother.
Yes. It was time for Atsuko to make a change. She'd been weak for far too long. After all…
"…the blood of a king runs through my veins."
Ending Note: I hope you enjoyed reading that! I know I skipped around a lot, but that was intentional. I only wanted to hit the highlights of Atsuko's experiences to create a picture of what her life was like while she was pregnant and then during the anime.
If there's any questions about anything, I'd be happy to answer them!