Here is the next chapter of Shingami no Seito.
I'm attempting to dramatize these things and stretch out the content to the maximum point without losing the reader's interest.
I'm trying. Hard. lol
"Kah!" A spurt of blood escaped his mouth as he landed on the black road. "U-urgh..."
He had landed completely flat onto his back. Completely stunned, he could do nothing, nor did he feel anything. Trying to lift himself, he attempted to try and exert his muscle power into sitting up. Then he heard a noise to his right.
Turning his head, he heard a screech and saw a bright light... and a tire three feet from his face.
"O-oh God! I-I didn't mean to! T-this can't be!"
A middle-aged man fell to his knees, holding his head in shame. He had unexpectedly run over a high schooler that had somehow... fallen from above.
"No... nonono..." Sakura ran over to her beloved childhood friend and companion... Shin. She could let her mouth quiver and stare with wide eyes. The sight before her was utterly gruesome, the manner of his death almost too cruel for words. Her sapphire-blue eyes continued to tear up at a faster rate, the view of blood reflected upon her pupils.
The blood was everywhere.
His entire head and upper body was immersed in the dark red liquid, which was still spreading over on top of the concrete.
"W-why..." The pink-haired girl felt her legs go weak and dropped to the ground. All motions stopped. "Why did this happen... Why did... Why did this happen..."
She had given him the ring. They were supposed to be together forever.
Now they were going to be apart.
"G-Goddammit!" Kazuhiko cried out. He could hear the sirens in the distance drawing closer... but he knew it was too late.
"Ohgod...ohgod...ohgod..." Kin could only lean on him as she held in her lunch from coming up.
"Please step aside! Paramedics have arrived!"
The two paramedical nurses quickly and efficiently unloaded the stretcher as another checked for Shin's vitals.
The nurse frowned, sorry for the quickly performed standard procedures, applying pressure here and there.
Then he ran the scanner over... and his eyes snapped wide open.
"T-triple time! He's still alive!"
"T-triple time! He's still alive!"
"...Eh?" Sakura stared at the nurse as if he had grown three heads. Did her ears deceive her?
"Ma'am, are you related to this boy?" The paramedic asked.
"S-still... alive?" Here eyes couldn't have gotten any bigger than they already were.
"Y-yes. Do you know him?"
"I-I..." She couldn't respond. So many thoughts were racing through her mind at once that she ultimately froze in shock.
"She's his boyfriend!" Kazu shouted. He looked down in pain for the situation... and to hide the tears of joy that his best friend had lived. Kin rubbed his back.
"All of you! You're coming in the second ambulence!"
The three of them waited in front of the emergency room.
Sakura fiddled around with the locket, letting it twirl between her fingers. Occasionaly, every five minutes, she would open it to look inside, then close it again.
She just didn't know what to do. The girl was absolutely thankful that Shin had lived, that much was for sure.
But how would this affect his life? He had fallen from an incredible height, onto his back no less, and had two tires run over his face at about eighty kilometers per hour. Informed that his neck, upper back, tail-bone, legs, and left arm were broken, she just prayed that he survive the surgery. And that wasn't the end of the list. There were other factors like internal bleeding, blood loss, and most dangerously, his fractured skull. It was a miracle it didn't get squished flat under the pressure of a two-thousand pound vehicle traveling at high speed.
He always did have a thick head. Sakura giggled to herself. Like that time...
September 24th, 2315.
The beginning of eighth grade had been a great success. Thanks to Shin, she was having an easier time "fitting in". During the entire last third of her seventh grade year, the stubborn boy put up his best effort to unify the class and stop prejudice at its core. He made friends with everyone, did his best to involved the lonely Sakura who was always left out, and made sure she was never hurt emotionally... and if she was, he was there to talk to her about it.
She was truly grateful for what he had done for her. She didn't even know if she would be able to repay him for his kindness.
Sakura sat in class, but to her dismay, Shin sat on the opposite side of class.
But it wasn't a big deal, because everyone was beginning to get along, and didn't make fun of her mixed blood.
"Class, today we have another transfer student. His name is Ueshiro Daisuke," the teacher introduced him, then guided him to the proper seat and began the lesson afterwards.
It was rather boring that day, and the blue-eyed middle-schooler just wanted to go home. Fortunately, she had learned the joys of passing time through doodling on her notes... and passing notes to Shin. This time, however, she wasn't so sure about it because the new kid was sitting next to her. She decided to go with it anyway.
She poked Ueshiro with her pencil eraser to grab his attention.
"Hmm?" He lazily turned his head towards her. The pink-haired girl smiled, then pointed at the paper, then Shin. He groggily nodded and slipped the note onto the next person in the chain.
Mentally humming, Sakura waited patiently for a reply from the bleach-haired boy. She giggled at the thought of what she had written.
"Happy-day todayyy! Don't you want to go shopping with me after?"
Daisuke slipped her the note of Shin's reply. Slyly, she unfolded the paper and read it to herself... and frowned. His reply was,
"Tch, what's so happy about today, especially if I have to hang out with you..."
She hurriedly wrote a reply back, saying,
"What do you mean?" Then she slipped the note to her right. The next reply from him was even worse.
"You're ugly. Got it? I don't want to hang out with you anymore."
She simply stared at the note in disbelief. Ugly? Not hang out anymore? What did this mean?
For the rest of the period, she discontinued all work, staring at that one piece of paper. Time rolled by, and soon, the lunch bell rang.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kiyodama Sakura noticed the yellow-eyed one walk over.
"Hey! So you wanted to go shopping after? When do we meet?" He smiled and sat down next to her. She refused to make eye contact. How could he be so friendly after saying all that? She was beginning to get annoyed.
"Um Sakura-chan," Shin tried to look into her eyes, "Did what I said weird you out? Haha, it was just a joke."
That was it.
"What do you mean it was just a joke!" She shouted standing up, drawing the attention of a few students. "H-how could you be so... so heartless!?"
"W-wha? What do you mean..." He looked at her in confusion.
"Don't lie! You told me I was ugly and that I wasn't worth being with! Aren't I your friend!?" Hot tears were beginning to form on the edge of her eyes.
Shin opened, then closed his mouth.
"I... " He looked into her eyes and frowned. "Don't you trust me?"
"What..." her face turned into despair. "I-I thought I could trust you..."
She looked up at the students around her. Some stared, others walked away from the scene... and she noticed one peculiar student. His stare was a bit... off.
... and it was directed toward her. He quickly turned, but she didn't miss it. She had seen a glimpse of his... grin.
She wasn't the only one who had seen it.
A fast flash of black and orange blurred across her vision as Shin bolted for Daisuke.
"You!" Shin held the boy by his collar. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything man, chill." He smirked and brushed off the other boy's grip. "I just told that half-breed what she needed to hear."
"What." Someone's frown was now becoming into a glare.
"I just said she was ugly man, its the tru-"
He never got to finish the sentence as Shin punched him straight across the face, knocking him down to the floor and caused blood to be shed.
"D-damnit! W-what's your problem, you dick-wad! You got a proble-"
Another punch.
"That's it, you're dead!" The boy rushed Shin, grabbing his arms and began to wrestle for dominance.
The bleach-haired teen bent his knees and braced himself for impact, leaning back... then snapped his head forward. A few girls screamed as they heard a loud, smack! He threw his head back and gave another headbutt... and another... and another.
By this point, Shin's forehead was severely bleeding, but the Daisuke had given up... more like KO'd from Shin's excessive head-beating.
Swaying and struggling to stand, the orange-haired one bent down and searched the other boy's pockets. Pulling out two sheets of paper, he stood up and wobbled over to Sakura's desk.
She watched as he opened his grip and dropped the two notes on her desk... then watched him walk away and out of the room.
Sakura open up the crumpled pieces of paper and read the writing to herself.
The first, she assumed was the response to her first note and the second to her other note.
"Yeah, definitely! It'll be fun to hang out with someone as fun as you!"
"Well, you're smart, funny, and pretty. I'd wanna be with you always!"
She realized she had made a grave mistake and ran out to apologize... but couldn't find Shin anywhere. Frantically searching before the lunch period was over, Sakura asked if anyone had seen him. No one knew. She ran to the nurse's office, expecting him to be there. Nope. She ran to the lunch room. Not there either. The courtyard. Not out there. The eighth-grade girl panicked, unable to find her friend. Then she remembered.
He always hangs out on the roof!
She dashed toward the nearest set of stairs and climbed.
Opening the door, she burst out onto the roof, breathing heavily from having exerted herself a bit too much.
"S-Shin!" She called for him. "Shin!"
She saw him standing near the fence.
"Shin." She slowly approached him. Sakura felt a little sorry about what she had said to him. She had immediately assumed that he was the perpetrator, not her comrade in the great scheme of things. In the end, she misunderstood the situation and had yelled at Shin for something he didn't do.
I have to apologize.
"You don't have to say you're sorry," his voice suddenly broke the silence.
"E-eh?" She looked up at him for the unexpected statement, blinking a few times.
"B-but... next time..."
"N-next time?" Sakura leaned in closer.
"...trust me more." A tear rolled down his cheek.
Her sapphire eyes looked at him with an intensity of admiration... then she kissed his cheek. He spazzed out.
"W-wha-wha-what are you doing!?" He threw his hands up in the air, revealing a look of complete surprise.
"T-that..." trying to cover her blush, she put her hands to her face. "... was a thank-you gift. Y-you won't get too many of those..."
"U-uh..." Shin was reddening himself. Then he relaxed and gave her a hug, which elicited a yelp from her.
"W-what are you doing!?"
"I'm returning the favor," He smiled with one eye open. The blood was getting into his other eye.
"U-um, are you okay?" She worried about his wound... and his mental health. He was always getting poor grades... maybe this was the reason.
"Yeah, I have a hard head, don't worry. I'll use it to protect you! Hahah!" Shin let out a big laugh.
"Hmm? You sure?" Sakura let out a little giggle, "You're going to be suspended for what you did to that poor idiot. You sure you can still protect me then?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Uh... umm..." He could only laugh at the situation.
She couldn't help but laugh along. After all, she had rediscovered her best friend... and someone to like.
Sakura smiled as she recalled the memory of Shin's declaration to protect her... and the warmth of his hug. The pink-haired teen could only hope to that he would now live to remember the memory as well. She and the two friends beside her prayed for his life and a safe return. They were concentrating so hard that they didn't even notice the parents walk in on the scene.
"Sakura," a deep voice called to her.
"Huh?" The three of them looked up. Sakura noticed her dad walking next to her mother... and Shin's parents right beside them.
"Perfect timing," another voice called out from the door. The doctor had come out. "The parents are here."
"My son!" Shin's father cried out. "My son! I-Is he okay!?"
The doctor sighed, "I have good news... and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
It became as silent as a grave.
A/N: Yup. I decided to end it right there, because, 1) It's two in the morning. 2) It makes a great cliffhanger. 3) You all should be eager enough to leave reviews by now.
Oh yeah, I turned on Anonymous Reviews, so now anyone can review. Have fun!