Thank you Skylar1023 for your review. It was exactly what I was going for. It's nice to have it confirmed. This is a bit of a dark chapter, just so you guys know in advance. Talk of suicide ahead.
"Yoohoo! May-senpai~!" a disembodied voice echoes through the air, snapping said girl out of her thoughts.
"What?" she wonders, taking her gaze from the sunlit park and pond by looking up to see a bright pink blob soaring right at her. Waving behind her like a flag in the wind is a green blob similar in size.
As the blobs grows closer, May can distinct them to be people; one in the form of an overly excited grim reaper and the other as a bewildered looking boy. "Botan." May acknowledges simply as they hop off her oar.
She glances at the boy who looks back at her with curiosity in his doe-like brown eyes. "Botan…How many times do I have to tell you to ferry away the souls a quickly as possible? You know what happens to wandering souls." May scolds the blue-haired and pink-eyed grim reaper before her.
Botan only smiles back at her with a cat-like grin, though obviously feeling intimidated, as she seems to shrink in size. "I know, I know. But this is different!" Botan objects, making May tilt her head and pluck at the loose strands in her braid, disheveling it even further. "Oh? Do tell." she urges, not convinced.
Botan straightens herself, before motioning to the boy next to her, who hasn't said a word as of yet. "This is Yusuke Urameshi. Yusuke, meet May, she's a grim reaper like myself, though we work in different departments. I process the acutely dead. like accidental deaths such as yourself ,while May here processes those who die of illness and sometimes even suicides when Hana-chan is off duty." Botan explains happily.
"Fun." Yusuke mutters under his breath, not looking very excited. On the contrary.
"Anyway." Botan starts again, turning to her senior co-worker. "Yusuke here is still hanging around, because he wasn't supposed to die." she explains.
"Did you check your book?" May intervenes before she can continue. "Yes! Yes! Of course I did!" Botan huffs indignantly. "I already took him to see Koenma-sama and he told us to wait until he figured out what to do. Ne May-senpai, what do you think he will decide on?" she wonders, clasping her hands together and gazing up at the sky in thought.
May once again looks at the boy, slightly surprised. She can't remember having dealt with such a case as this herself. She heard about it though.
"A trial maybe?" she mutters to herself as she scrutinizes Yusuke. "Trial?" Yusuke questions, his eyes widening with interest.
Botan snaps back to the present at the mention of the word. "You really think so?" she wonders in awe. May shrugs in reply. "Perhaps, perhaps not. One never knows when it comes to Koenma."
"Hey hey, what is this 'trial' you're talking about?" Yusuke butts in impatiently. May looks back at him unimpressed. "Let's just say that you better not have long rep-sheet, or you're done for." she states, making Yusuke swallow hard.
"No worries Yusuke!" Botan pipes up. "You may look like an ordinary thug, but I'm sure you have a good heart inside." she assures him, making him grind his teeth at her half-assed compliment in annoyance. "Gee, thanks." he spits out.
"You sure have a lot of faith in the kid, Botan. Let's hope he doesn't prove you wrong." May hums.
"Who are you calling a kid?!" Yusuke asks indignantly at the degrading title. "You don't look like you're a day older than me…girl!" he retaliates; making May smirk at him in amusement.
"Nice comeback you derp. Anyway, I've been around long enough to see you're grandmother come out of her diapers, so I believe I have certain privileges." she tells him, making him look back at her surprised. "I stand corrected. You're way old!" he accuses, making her eye twitch as Botan looks at Yusuke horrified.
"Yusuke!" she reprimands, before tugging him away by his arm. "I'm sorry about him May-senpai! I will take him out of your sight now!" she apologizes before hurriedly throwing Yusuke on the back of her oar.
"Hey!" he shouts indignantly, but Botan is already off before he can say more. May is left to her own devices, sweat dropping at the scene and silently wishing Botan good luck with the short-fused boy. She's going to need it.
A beeping noise returns her attention back to the present. "Time to get back to work." She muses, getting up from her perch on the fence and jumping into the portal, transferring her back to the familiar grounds of the hospital.
Nighttime is approaching as she steps inside. The nurses are changing their shifts, making them bustle around even more than usual.
On instinct, May feels in which direction she has to go, where a soul is crying out for guidance. She's been doing this for long enough to go without her booklet.
'Pediatrics' the sign says as she steps into a more silent corridor. She resists the urge to sigh in dismay. She always regrets having to come here.
After finishing her task, May finds herself standing on the edge of the hospital building, staring down at the crowds below, just handling their own business.
May can't help think how tedious life can be at times. If only people were more aware of the bigger picture, than perhaps they would try to do something useful with their lives.
She vaguely registers the door to the roof opening. Believing it to be a smoker, as the nurses often come here to get their dose of nicotine, she just ignores it. Instead, she calculates the height of the building and wonders how much would remain of a person if they jumped. Not much, she concludes. She has seen her fair share of suicides, but luckily none too gruesome yet.
She can't help consider suicides being a bother to society, though on the other hand, she can understand the concept of not wanting to live anymore. She once wished to die, though she never took action on that thought. Something else had gotten to her before she could and after that, all she wanted was to live again. How silly she was.
"Thinking of jumping?" a voice questions, making her look back to see if someone was actually talking to her or if there were people up here that she didn't took into account.
She notices it's only her and that redhead that's been trying to kill her with his eyes for the past week. He's such an oddball, wanting her gone one moment, and wanting to talk the next. Can't he make up his mind?
"I don't think that would do much, considering I'm sort of dead already." she replies. "Sort of?" he catches, making her eyes narrow slightly in a mixture between annoyance and amusement. "Sort of." she repeats, not wanting to go in details with someone she hardly knows, or likes for that matter.
May jumps down from her perch, landing noiselessly on the roof. She turns to Kurama, looking him right in the eye. "Did you really come here for idle chat, or has something else been weighing on your mind?" she questions him.
He glances at the ground before him before peering back at May through the darkness. "Lately, I've encountered a lot of... frustrations." he says, nearly cringing at having to put a weakness into words.
May folds her arms over her chest unimpressed, wondering what he is getting at.
"Sadly I've been taking out some of that on you." he continues, making May scoff. Kurama's eyes narrow in annoyance at the gesture. "I would like to apologize." he finishes in a strained way, though still sounding sincere.
May tilts her head in curiosity, trying to make sense of his chance in attitude. "Never have I met anyone who had such difficulty apologizing." she starts, taking in the growing annoyance within the teen before her.
"That's alright however. I do suppose I can understand why you feel sore towards me. Just so you know; it bothers me little. If a glare is all you can muster after being able to see me, I would say that it is nothing in comparison to what some wish upon me without even knowing I'm there." she shrugs before smirking. "In other words: You're forgiven. Besides, I admit I was giving you a hard time on purpose." she admits.
Some weight seems to lift off of Kurama's shoulders at that moment as he visibly relaxes his stance just slightly.
"However…" May continues. "Do not stand in the illusion that there is anything I can do to safe your mother. I do not own the capability to cure ones sickness. I can only relieve one of the pain permanently. Though I figure, you of all people should know the workings of death's processes better than any common human." she jabs, making Kurama's stature tighten once more.
"You know who I am?" he questions wearily; scenario's running through his mind of how his stay there will play out further.
"There is nothing a little digging won't reveal if you know where to look." May states before explaining: "Your soul once had a different body. The amount of youki it carries doesn't correspondent with your body. Somehow, you stole your way into an other's body, probably a fetus, as they do not receive a soul before a certain time. As someone who has only seen the traditional form of a possession, you can imagine that it piqued my curiosity."
One would say that this would put Kurama more on guard, but to May's surprise, he relaxes. He even smiles, making May perk a delicate brow.
"You did not report me to Koenma." he states. "You know who I am and obviously what I did in the past, but you did not report me. Else I would have been picked up off the streets already." he concludes. "Why?" he asks, genuinely curious.
"Because of your mother." she states as if it's obvious. "If she does die, she shouldn't have to die alone." she explains making Kurama real back in his emotions.
"I wasn't under the assumption that you cared that much." he nearly spits out.
"How can you assume anything when you don't know me?" she retaliates. "Besides, Youko Kurama wasn't supposed to care for the lives of humans, but here he is doing just that." she muses pointedly.
They fall into an awkward silence until May concludes she has had enough. "Wait." Kurama starts, as she turns her back. "Is there…really nothing…to save my mother?" he asks silently as if unsure about asking May for her help.
She looks at him over her shoulder, her gaze piercing and calculating. He looks desperate and it does something to her. "How did you, a demon, come to care for a human so much?" she questions silently before asking out loud. "How much do you care for your human mother, Youko Kurama?"
"Why do you wish to know?" he questions in return. "Answer me fox. What would you do for her?" she asks, not amused by him dodging the issue.
"Anything." he states, a small glimmer of hope rising within him. Perhaps she does know a way he is unaware off.
She turns to him, staring him straight into his eyes. "Would you die for her?" she asks calmly, leaving Kurama silent for a moment. "I would." he finally answers with a determined nod.
"Hm." May hums before nodding in satisfaction. With a quick turn on her heel, she disappears from sight, leaving Kurama hanging and pondering on what just occurred.