Breaking Point

Pressure, the one thing that can make anyone crack, and he was no exception. Doing well in school, living up to the standards of his fiancée, and training, everyday, in and out. Twenty miles, fifty later. Three laps around the city. It was always something different. And he was starting to crack. Slowly but surely, he was starting to crack.

"Yoh," the bluenette asked his friend. "You alright?"

"Fine," Yoh replied glumly, he had not finished his laps in time and Anna was angry at him. He loved her, that was true, but sometimes he just could not take her moodiness. Especially today, he had finals coming up, and had to study, since Anna had forbidden him from using spirits to cheat.

But that was not cheating, it was improving his shamanic powers, if that was even a word. She should be happy that he took an interest and was being creative, but no, she had to forbid him from doing so.

"Well," Horo Horo said with a pained smile. "Ryu's making dinner, you should come inside."

"Not sure Anna would let me," Yoh spat, losing it for the first time in years. "I didn't finish training. So no dinner until then."

"Yoh, you're going crazy," the Inu said, his eyes widening. "What's going on?"
"What's going on," Yoh said, his deep onyx eyes flickering with hidden torment. "The Shaman Tournament is over, courtesy of me for killing my twin brother. And now finals are coming up. I have to study, and Anna still makes me train. Why would something be wrong?"

"Snap out of it dude," Horo Horo said, backing away slightly. "Calm down."

"How," Yoh asked, on the brink of insanity. "How am I supposed to calm down? I still have work to do, after-all."

"Anna," Horo Horo called with fear laced in his words. "I need your help!"

"What is it," Anna snapped, appearing at the doorway in a matter of seconds. She would have made one of her normal threats, but she noticed Yoh's wide onyx eyes before she could. "Yoh?"

"What is it Anna dear," Yoh mocked. "Do you need something else?"

"What's going on," Anna demanded of the Inu.

"I have no idea," Horo Horo replied. "I just asked Yoh if something was wrong, and now look at him, he's going crazy."

"Yoh," Anna said. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Why should I," Yoh said in a teasing voice. "Why should I tell you anything anymore? What do you care? I'll tell you, nothing, you care nothing. My brother is dead, I have to study, train, work, what happened to the laid-back life I wanted? Did you ever think that I might want something in life? No, you didn't."

"Shut up," Anna yelled, before running back into the house, tears trying to escape from the confines of her eyes.

"Anna," Horo Horo said. The ice-queen itako never cried, unless she was really hurt. Horo Horo was torn, Anna and Yoh were both friends of his, who should he help? Yoh, who was on the brink of insanity, or Anna, who seemed utterly crushed by Yoh's words?

Horo Horo finally decided that Anna was the one to help, the itako never cried in front of others, only when Yoh almost died did she cry. Yoh was strong, he could take care of himself. Although, Horo Horo did not like to leave his friend in this state, he knew Yoh could pull through, at least he hoped so.

"Good, he's gone," Yoh laughed to himself. "Now I can be in peace once more, and finish my training. Then it will all be fine. Just do the work and it will all be fine. Everything will be normal, just like it should be."

Yoh realized he was muttering the same general thing to himself and stopped, he grabbed his sandals and started running, just twenty more miles to go, twenty miles until things were normal. Until he could forget.

Everything will be alright, hi smiled to himself as he ran, it always comes out alright in the end.

"Hey," Yoh said, the same easy smile plastered on his sweat-drenched face. "I'm back. Is there any dinner left?"

"In the kitchen," one of his friends murmured.

Yoh nodded his thanks and went into the kitchen, smiling broadly. He took the food up to his room, Anna had not been at the table. Was she mad at him? Yoh furrowed his brow and thought, but he could not figure out why she would still be mad. He just needed to cool off, everything was fine now.

He ate his food quickly and deposited the empty dishes outside his room, he would take those downstairs later, if he remembered. Then he stretched out on his futon. He thought over his outburst earlier today, and found that he felt much better afterwards, Maybe that was what it was like to let others know what he was really feeling. And well, it felt good.

Yoh pulled his books out and started to look them over, exams started tomorrow and he had a lot of studying to do if he wanted to come close to passing these exams. First was his history exam, that one would be easy. He had a natural ability for history for some reason, must be his interest in the people.

The next day he had his Chemistry and Geometry exams, those he was doomed on if he did not study. So he pulled up the overly-large chemistry book and began to look it over, but it looked like it was in a different language.

He stared at the markings he had made in his notes and in the book and tried to decipher their meanings, but sleep was beginning to take over, it was midnight after all. And in a matter of minutes, Yoh was passed out on his books.

"Yoh," Anna muttered, peeking in the slightly ajar door. "Are you alright. I'm sorry, you can use spirits or stop training for awhile. Just… I'm sorry."

No answer came from the dark room, so Anna brought herself into the room slightly, and saw the passed out form of her fiancée on his chemistry books. She chuckled almost silently. She would have to tell him again tomorrow.

Anna took the books out from under him and laid them beside his futon. She was about to leave, when she bent down and softly kissed her sleeping fiancée on the lips. "Sleep well, Yoh."

Yoh shifted slightly from the movement, but then settled, and was still in peaceful slumber. Anna let a smile grace her cold features as she left the room, grabbing the tray outside Yoh's door. It was the least she could do, she had been so hard on him.

"Wha tim's it," Yoh mumbled as he stumbled off the futon. He glanced at the small clock he kept near his bed. "Shi!" he mumbled when he saw the time. "Gotta go!"

"Yoh," Anna questioned at the doorway. "Are you up? We have to go to school." She sounded uncertain through the door, and Yoh rushed to put decent clothes on while yelling words no human could understand. Anna smiled, Yoh was back to normal.

"Ready," Yoh smiled as he rushed out of the room, grabbing Anna's hand and dragging her with him.

The two ran to school, Anna somehow being the faster one, even though it was Yoh who did all the training. When they got there, they rushed into the testing room, History.

Yoh smiled, easy. He actually paid attention in that class, so he was ready for anything.

"How do you think you did," Manta asked with a smile.

"I'm doomed," Yoh said, the tears rushing down his face, much like when he first saw Anna while he was in the hospital. "Anna's gonna kill me!"

"It'll be fine Yoh," Manta sighed. "Did you study?"

"No," Yoh whined. "I thought I knew History."

"Don't worry about it," Manta reassured his friend. "Your grade won't fall that much if you fail."

"Great," Yoh sighed. "I'm gone study now then."

"Yoh," Anna said, right on cue. "How was your exam?"

"Fine," Yoh said, lying through his teeth. "You?"

"Mine was fine," Anna said nonchalantly. "Now, let's get home. I need to study."

"No," Yoh said, slamming his fist on the sink. "No. How did I fail all of them? What happened?"

Yoh continued to stare at his reflection in the mirror for a few more minutes, before taking his bruised fist and smashing it cruelly into the mirror. It cracked from the force and Yoh's hand started bleeding instantly.

He watched as the shards fell to the ground and small puddle formed. Red silk, like the fabrics Ren wore, it was so… pretty. Yoh sank to the ground slowly, his fist still bleeding a good deal, more than he thought it would. Then he started to drag his fingers through red silk, making small pictures between the shards of glass.

They were so pretty, and the silk was so fine and beautiful against the smooth tiles of the bathroom floor. Yoh was kneeling now, and the glass was wedging itself in his knees and was buried in his fingers covered in red silk.

"It's nice," Yoh mused, his thoughts clouded by the sudden rush the red silk gave him.

Yoh smiled, looking at the broken shards of glass scattered about the floor, he could make more of this pretty color, it was easy. All he had to do was bear the sudden rush he felt when it came out. But that was no punishment, it felt good to him.

"Hey Yoh," a voice called, shaking him from his revere. "You almost done in there? I have to shower before dinner. I stink."

It had to be Horo Horo. Yoh took the liberty of not answering, and instead grabbed a piece of glass and dragged it along his thin arms, he really was bony. He would have to work on that, Anna would make sure of it.

Anna, the name made him shudder. How he had just blatantly lied to her, how could he live with doing that. He let the glass go deeper, he had to find a punishment for what he did to Anna. How could they get married if he was not willing to be perfectly honest with her. They could not.

"Yoh," Horo Horo called. "Are you alright in there?"

"Yoh still did not answer his friend, instead, he played with the red silk that was slowly growing bigger on the tiles. "So pretty," he muttered to himself without even realizing it. He felt dizzy though, maybe he should stop playing with the red silk.

He should clean it up, Anna would have a fit. And he would not want that from his fiancée, how beautiful she was. Yoh contemplated her as his fingers moved in lazy circles. Then he made the mistake, he closed his eyes and let himself fall into a peaceful slumber.

"Yoh," Horo Horo yelled, banging on the door, then shaking the handle, no use. He quickly got Kororo to help him break the door down, and gasped at the shock of what he saw before him. His friend was lying in a puddle of his own blood, a shattered mirror around him.

"Why," Horo Horo whispered, more to himself than Yoh. "Why did you do it?"

The blood was starting to flow out of the room, how there was so much Horo Horo did not know. But he slowly backed away from the sight.

"Anna," Horo Horo called, the panic rising uncontrollably in his voice. "I need your help. Something's very wrong."

Anna would have come, if she did not already know what Horo Horo was talking about. And it was all her fault, her fault that Yoh would go to this extreme. She bent her head in sorrow. It was all her fault, her fault that Yoh was gone.

"Red silk," Yoh smiled to himself as he drifted off. "Anna would look beautiful in a red silk yutaka."