Turning Point

Chapter Four: Confrontation

Keiko, love, I have no idea what to do…

He lay immobile on his bed, sheets and blankets tangled eschew around his legs, as he stared despondently at the ceiling above him, as if it held the answers he was so desperately seeking. Half-formed thoughts and emotions raced through his head, mingling and twining in an intense jumble that left him feeling ready to explode.

It was moments like this that had once made him so dangerous. Growing up, he had to face the reality of his life early on. In delicate terms, Atsuko Urameshi had never been the mothering type of woman, and their situation had left him fending for himself. Slowly, he learned to care for himself, protect himself and cope in the only ways he knew how. To survive, he relied solely on one thing: his own strength.

To achieve that strength meant pushing away any signs of weakness, and that included his emotions. He came to regard feelings as feeble, weak things that brought him nothing but misery and distraction, and he had dealt with enough of that already. But when Emotion became something tangible, something too real that he could no longer push away, he sought relief from the turbulent rage that stirred inside him. He turned violent.

He fought, he drank, he smoked, he gambled; the older he grew, the greater risks he took. He became a troublemaker, a bully, seeking any fight or trouble he could immerse himself in. For a short time, the adrenaline would surge through him, letting him forget. Or a fight would be picked, and he spoke through his fists, letting his release come through the aggression. Adults and classmates, everyone he came in contact with, could see the violence inside of him, and they feared it.

Those who thought themselves brave dared to confront him, only to prove themselves fools as they failed, trying to break him, conform him, and he evaded them every step of the way. He proved himself to be something unstoppable, unbreakable, and unable to be contained or controlled. His recruitment by Koemna, to serve the Spirit World in exchange for the granting of his life, even that had been an outlet. Over time, it became something more, a fight for life and loved ones and friends, but never escaped, never left behind the violence he was buried so deeply in.

Keiko had come into his life, changing everything his world had come to make sense of. It had been so early on that she became part of his world; they were children to the greatest degree; he six and she five. She had been the first to reach out to him, to show him that things could be different. But they were too young to understand, immaturity and stubbornness taking residence where understanding should have resided. They were as different as night and day, in temperament as well as background. Despite it all, a connection formed between them, a common thread that bound and drew them to one another.

She was the one who could calm the storm that raged inside him, the one who could see beyond his act to see him for who he was. But even she was not capable of taming him. He refused to concede, so set in his ways it terrified him to change. And then something happened, something extraordinary that brought his world to a screeching half, threw him utterly off-balance, and sent him hurtling into an unknown future. He fell in love. Even more, he fell in love with his best friend.

It had been said that to fall in love with one's best friend was to bring about both the greatest heartache and the greatest happiness. He felt it all, the entire rollercoaster of feelings and emotions that thrilled and pained, confused and elated him. The final confrontation he faced, the end of his struggles was the fight with himself to overcome his own petty immaturities to give himself the chance for something more. He had admitted the truth of his feeling for Keiko, to find them reciprocated in full. He had discovered his bliss, found his peace, and now their world was shifting again, to compensate for the greatest challenge he had ever known.

He was father to an unborn child, a child growing inside the woman he loved with everything he was. Already, he could never bear the thought of giving nothing less than all he had to give; as little as it was, to this one life that was only just beginning.

No matter what happened, no matter what they confronted, he would never turn away.

xxxx

Katsuhiko Yukimura had always considered himself a reasonable man. Reasonable, rational, understanding. He had always tried to be that kind of man, that kind of father, and for all his forty years of life and sixteen years of fatherhood, he had held true to the same ideals. He found those ideals sorely tested, however, as he was faced by one of a father's worst nightmares made flesh. His baby girl, the only child he and Seiko had been capable of having, had been with a man, and now she carried a child out of wedlock. Defying everything he held to be true about his daughter.

It took all the strength of his will, all his love for his Keiko, to keep his voice calm and steady, hold back the anger and hurt that welled up inside him. He sighed, his breath husky and ragged, grateful for the table obscuring the view of the fists clenching at his sides. "Pregnant, Keiko. How could you do something so reckless?"

Keiko sat across from him, the eyes directed towards the hands folded in her lap miserable and apprehensive. She dared to raise her eyes to meet her father's, instantly recoiling at the hurt she found there. "Daddy…."

"No, not even reckless. Your innocence, Keiko. How could you give up something that precious?"

At that, Seiko Yukimura placed a tentative hand on her husband's arm. "Katsu-anata(1), perhaps you should let me speak to her on that matter."

Absently, Katsuhiko patted the hand resting on his arm, giving the small reassurance as he could as he kept his eyes locked on his daughter. "I don't think so, aisuru(2)."

"Katsu, onegai(3)."

Katsuhiko sighed again, reluctantly conceding. "Hai(4). For now."

Tears pooled in her eyes, obscuring her vision, as she wrapped her arms protectively around her middle. She could never stand to see that kind of betrayal, that kind of hurt in her father's eyes. Pain, disappointment, anger, all of that she could expect, but her betrayal of his trust had cut him deeply, and it was something neither he nor she would be able to easily forgive.

"D-Daddy, I can never say how sorry I am…."

Katsuhiko sighed again, rubbing a hand over his face, while Seiko found the other, their fingers tightly enlacing. If anything, this could remain the constant in his world, violently changing as it was, literally over night. His wife's support, his own reassurance. His anchor was eighteen years of marriage with the woman who had brought their precious daughter into the world. This was his defeat, the breakthrough to get beyond his bluster. His little girl was scared and hurting.

"Keiko, sweetheart. Have you given any thought to what you're going to do? What about school? What about your future?"

"I don't know, Daddy. I'm sorry, but I truly don't. Everything is happening so fast, I've just been taking it one step at a time. But, Mama, Daddy, I know I can do this. I just want you to trust me enough to know that."

Katsuhiko reached out with his free hand, enveloping his daughter's trembling fingers in a warm and reassuring grip. "Keiko, we do trust you. But sweetheart, this is….This is serious. You are sixteen years old, Keiko. What about school? You are a wonderful student, and if you keep on the right track, you could make it to any school you wanted. From there, you can go so far. But you've made yourself responsible for another life."

Seiko nodded in agreement. "There's nothing easy about parenthood, honey. You have to realize the responsibility that comes with this. Your life is going to change, Keiko, and you have to be ready to deal with that."

"I know, Mama. I'm ready to be a mother to my baby. I know I am."

Her grasp on her husband's hand tightening almost painfully, Seiko fought back tears at what she saw as her daughter's earnest naiveté. She remembered well what it meant to be young, in love, and pregnant. She had been eighteen when she married Katsuhiko, and Keiko had been conceived within a year of their marriage. The two of them had been so young, and hardly ready; she just barely out of school and at odds with her family over what they saw as rash decisions; Katsuhiko busy as he struggled to start up his ramen house, his lifetime dream. "Oh, sweetheart. Having a child is never easy. Especially when one is so young."

Keiko dropped her eyes. She felt suddenly tired, the weight of the past week pressing down on her worse then ever before. The thought that her and Yusuke's struggle was only beginning, only exhausted her more.

"Keiko, at least do one thing for me. Give me the name of the young man who did this to you."

Her head shot up, her eyes wide; as she felt fear for the first time she could remember in her father's presence. "Daddy, please. Give me a chance to talk to him before you do anything. Onegai."

"His name, Keiko."

"Promise me, Daddy."

"Fine, you have my promise. But give me his name."

Keiko ducked her head, her hair falling forward around her face, and took in a deep, shaky breath in a hope to somehow steel her resolve. "Yusuke. It's Yusuke."

The silence that followed was broken suddenly by a soft knocking on the door. Katsuhiko quietly excused himself, his face misleadingly expressionless as he rose to his feet and left the room. Seiko faced her daughter, struck silent and shocked by her disclosure. Yusuke Urameshi, her daughter's best friend since childhood. More than he seemed, troubled and misunderstood, a goodhearted young man beneath his bluster and troublemaking.

He had suddenly become something more; somewhere along the line he and Keiko had made the transition from childhood friends to lovers, and now to the teenage parents of her unborn child. If it was hard to fathom Keiko doing something so reckless, it was even more so with the young Yusuke-kun. She saw him as an honorary son, and there had always been an unspoken agreement between them that she entrusted Keiko to him, and that had been betrayed.

"Keiko," she began softly, hesitantly.

"Mama, I love him. I can't give you and Daddy any reasons, or excuses, or even explanations. All I can give you is that I love him, and he loves me too. You of all people can understand that, can't you, Mama?"

"Yes, I can, baby. But you have to realize, none of this is that simple. Have you told Yusuke-kun?"

"Hai."

Katsuhiko left behind the tense atmosphere of the room, swinging over the door at the quiet but insistent knocking to reveal a tall, lean young man on the other side. Hands buried in the pockets of his denim jacket, shuffling his feet as he glanced up warily at the older man through the hair falling into his eyes. Katsuhiko's jaw clenched as he regarded the young man standing before him. Yusuke Urameshi had made his entrance.

xxxx

Anata- darling; most often used by a woman in referring to her husband

Aisuru- beloved

Onegai- please

Hai- yes