Forgotten Fruits Chapter 02
Disclaimer: Again, I don't own Furuba or any characters from it. I wish I did. T_T;
Shigure was planning to head straight over to Akito's room, but was stopped by Hatori in the hallway outside it. His cousin and best friend was trying desperately to make him go home, but Shigure didn't want to hear it. He had come to speak with Akito and that was what he was going to do.
"Ha-san. Please step out of the way." Shigure said calmly to Hatori, who was standing in front of Akito's door. "I am going to speak with Akito-san. Don't interfere."
Hatori didn't like the tone of voice Shigure was using towards him. It scared him because Shigure was usually much more cheerful and kind towards him. Now he sounded almost cold, as if he was angry at Hatori because of what Akito had ordered him to do. It wasn't his fault. He had to do it, even though he didn't want to. Was Shigure blaming him? He looked at his friend with pleading eyes.
"Shigure, don't." He said warningly. "You know Akito-san hates visitors this late. He'll be angry. You won't get anywhere by doing this."
"Ha-san," Shigure said in a voice full of annoyance and anger, something Hatori didn't hear often, "Step aside. I won't say it again."
Hatori didn't know what to do. He was battling with himself again, not sure whether to let Shigure do this or to restrain him. He knew that Shigure had been serious in what he had just said. He sounded very serious. And Hatori wasn't sure if he wanted to get on the wrong side of him. He had seen Shigure angry only a few times in his life, but it was enough to know how he got when he was in this kind of mood. Even if he did try to stop him from going in, would he be successful anyway?
There was a prolonged silence in which Hatori stared intensely at Shigure and the air in the hallway seemed to get so thick and heavy one could slice it with a knife. If looks could kill, Hatori would have been zapped by the electricity that seemed to be sparking from Shigure's dark eyes. Finally Hatori stepped out of the way reluctantly, and watched his friend walk to the door, feeling regretful already as Shigure slid it slowly open.
Shigure felt as though he had stepped into some new world completely different from the one he had been in when he was standing in the hallway with Hatori. He was surrounded by a dull darkness and the air was so cold he felt as if it would smother and suffocate him. He wondered why Akito would want to close all the curtains and have his room like this when he was so prone to being sick. Hadn't Hatori said anything to him? Shigure made a mental note to ask Hatori about it when this was over. Turning around he saw Hatori give him one last worried look before he shut the door quietly.
"Akito-san." Shigure said unabashedly to the dark figure sitting under one of the windows. Moonlight was filtering in under the curtain and illuminating Akito's features softly. He looked almost ghost-like, something that troubled Shigure.
"I don't like visitors here so late. Why have you come, Shigure?" Akito whispered menacingly, unmoving.
"I want to know the reason for erasing Tohru-kun's memory." replied the older man.
"I don't need to explain my reasons to you, Shigure," Akito answered calmly, his voice sounding too eerie for Shigure's comfort.
"Do you even have a reason? Or has your spite just driven you mad?"
At this accusation Akito's eyes flashed wildly and he grit his teeth, clearly irritated. "That girl had no place in our family from the start." He retorted maliciously. "She deserves no mercy, but that is what I am giving her. I am choosing to have her memory erased instead of having her see how dark the curse can really be." He slowly got to his feet and the moonlight disappeared from his face. Now he was merely a shadow, silhouetted against the glow coming from the curtained window. Shigure could only just make out the smirk plastered across his face. "I would have thought Shigure would be pleased with this decision. This way Honda Tohru-san doesn't get hurt."
"Doesn't get hurt?!" Shigure repeated in disbelief. "She's hurting now, Akito-san. And we're hurting too! Yuki-kun, Kyou-kun and I. Even Ha-san is hurting because of what you're forcing him to do. And how do you think Momiji and Kisa will feel once Tohru-kun is gone? Maybe it won't hurt Tohru-kun in the end, but it's hurting the Juunishi. It's effecting a lot of us. Are you blind to that?!"
Akito said nothing for a few moments as anger flashed through his eyes again. "I am not the one who is blind, Shigure." His voice was louder now. "You're all blind! That girl had no business with us from the beginning, and now she's fooled you all! Do you really think she can help us? She has even fooled you, Shigure. I expected better of someone like you."
Listening to the entire conversation from outside, Hatori bit his lip.
"She has become too close to you, Shigure." Akito said in disgust. "She has pulled the wool right over your eyes. I thought you weren't so easily fooled."
There was silence as Shigure looked down at the floor, though he couldn't even see his own feet because of how dark it was. He exhaled and watched as his breath rose in clouds of white. Akito, pleased that he had defeated his cousin, smirked and moved to sit down again. But he stopped when he heard quiet words coming from Shigure's mouth.
"You're the fool." Shigure muttered.
Akito looked at him sharply. "What was that?" He asked, fury clearly rising in his voice.
"I said you're the fool." Shigure lifted his head and stared right into Akito's dark eyes. "It's not we who are blind, it's you. You are blinded by your own spite and hate towards the world that you can't let anybody else be happy." Shigure could almost see the raging flames burning in the younger man's eyes as he spoke. He knew his cousin was being pushed over the edge of the blade of anger he was always standing upon, but he did not want to stop. This was something he had to say. "You took Yuki-kun's friends from him when he was just a child. You took Kana away from Hatori when he wanted to marry the person he loved most..."
Hatori froze when he heard his name being mentioned.
"... And now you're going to take Tohru-kun away from all of us. She could possibly be the best thing that has happened to any of the Juunishi, but you're taking her from us. …Because you can't stand us being happy, can you? It makes you angry because of the cards you were dealt at birth. Because of your curse. You can't let anyone else have happiness and joy." Shigure spat the words as if they burned his tongue to be saying them. "You're too selfish to let anyone else be happy. You are blind." He said emphatically.
Hatori swallowed outside the door. Shigure continued to stare assertively at his younger cousin. Akito trembled with rage. He let out a furious growl and began to yell.
"Shut up! Just shut up!!" His shaking hand reached out towards a table near him and he grasped something that Shigure couldn't make out because of the hindering darkness.
"A-akito-san!" Shigure said quickly, his voice faltering. "What are you doing?!"
Without warning Akito cast something towards Shigure, who threw his arms up in an automatic reaction, just in time to block the china vase flying at him. It shattered noisily into a thousand pieces as it crashed into him and the fragments tore into his arms relentlessly. Shigure cried out as bolts of pain shot through his arms. He stumbled backwards while trying to pull the sharp pieces of china out of his skin, and could feel warm liquid oozing over his hands. He didn't have enough time to register the fact that he was bleeding, though, because Akito suddenly leapt at him, wrapping his hands tightly around his older cousin's throat and squeezing as hard as he could. Choking, Shigure desperately tried to pull Akito's hands away but his grasp was too strong and too firm.
"Akito!" The door to the room was thrust open suddenly and light from the hallway poured in and dissolved the darkness as Hatori's eyes fell upon the scene before him. Akito paid no attention to his cousin and continued to stare straight into Shigure's panicked eyes, strangling him and screaming in rage.
"Tell me I'm blind--!!"
"Akito-san, stop!!" Hatori threw himself at Shigure and Akito, knocking them all to the floor in the process. Fortunately Akito's hands slipped off Shigure's neck and Shigure crawled away, gasping frantically for air and rubbing his aching skin. Blood was still spilling from the cuts in his arms and he left a trail of crimson across the floor.
"Akito-san, calm down! It's not good for your health!" Hatori was struggling to restrain Akito from getting up and attacking Shigure again. "Please! Calm down!" He had grabbed Akito's arms and was holding them tightly behind his back so he couldn't get away.
"Get out of here!!" Akito screamed at Shigure, who was still gasping for precious air to fill his deprived lungs. "Hatori, get him out of here now!" With a sudden burst of energy he threw Hatori off him and pointed with a shaking hand at Shigure. "Get him out!!"
Saying nothing, Hatori got quickly to his feet and grabbed Shigure, careful not to hurt his arms, and lead him out of the freezing room as fast as he could. He didn't stop once they were out of that horrible place. He didn't stop until he had taken Shigure right over to his small house, sitting him down on the veranda outside in the pleasant summer night air.
"I'll clean up your arms," he said calmly, and headed inside to get some of his medical equipment. Shigure sat in silence, staring at the bloodstained grass around his feet, still in shock at what had just happened. Perhaps he really was a fool, he thought. A fool for saying the things he said to Akito. But he had been so angry. He could feel stress that he hadn't felt in years building up inside his chest. He looked calmly down at his bloody arms as pain ached through them. He slowly brought his hand up and rubbed at his neck delicately. He swallowed, and winced at the pain that throbbed inside his throat.
Akito had been so scary tonight, he thought with worry. But why was he surprised? He knew how Akito could get. He had almost blinded Hatori in his left eye. Why hadn't Shigure thought of that? He should have been more careful. Perhaps if he hadn't let his angered emotions get the better of him, he could have chosen better things to say and persuaded Akito to call off his orders for erasing Tohru's memory. He had now ruined any chance of that, he thought dejectedly. He had failed to save Tohru. He had also failed to get any real answer as to why Akito suddenly wanted her memory erased of them all. Was it really such a sudden thing, or had Akito been planning this from the start? Something gave Shigure the feeling that the latter was the case, though he didn't know what or why.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Hatori's footsteps on the veranda once again. He had returned from inside, carrying a small bottle of disinfectant, some cotton balls and a roll of bandage. He sat down next to Shigure and gently took his left arm, which was closest to him. "Let's take a look at these cuts." He said, and Shigure helped him to roll up his tattered suit sleeve as cautiously as they could.
"Ugh.. my arms are a mess.." Shigure choked out, the first time he had spoken since his meeting with Akito. His voice was horse and it was painful just to speak, even quietly. He looked at his own ripped up left arm and watched as Hatori drenched some cotton balls in disinfectant, then gently wiped them across the cuts. Shigure winced as a stinging pain shot through his skin, and bit his lip, trying to endure it. Wiping all of the blood away, Hatori noticed there were still a few pieces of china stuck in his friend's arm, so he carefully went about removing them, much to Shigure's horror. But once all the pieces had been removed, Hatori went on with the cleaning and then finally wrapped the arm tightly in soft bandages. He then proceeded to work on Shigure's right arm, and the harsh disinfectant stung the bloodied cuts once again.
"Did you really think you would get far by confronting Akito-san?" Hatori asked quietly as he removed some more pieces of china from Shigure's skin.
Shigure winced in pain and then replied in a croaky voice, "I don't know." He laughed harshly at his own stupidity. "I guess I really was a fool. He was right."
"I don't think he was right," Hatori stated, finishing cleaning away all the blood. He reached for the roll of bandage and began to wrap it around Shigure's arm nice and tightly. "But I don't think you were either. You could have got yourself killed, you dumb shit."
A heavy silence fell between them for a few moments, and then Shigure let out another laugh, this time much louder than the one before. "But I'm okay now, ne?" He asked, grinning despite the fact that speaking was almost unbearable.
"You are now, yes, but if I hadn't come to help you then you would probably be dead." Hatori replied seriously. "Akito-san didn't look like he was going to let go any time soon. You know how he can be. He does things without thinking. You shouldn't have confronted him like that."
Shigure sighed and leaned against one of the wooden beams that held up the roof over the veranda. "I had to, Ha-san. I couldn't just do nothing about this."
"I know, but you could have thought more reasonably about what you were going to do. Barging in and demand answers isn't the way to get anything from Akito-san. You know that."
"I guess I just let my anger get the better of me." Shigure muttered, voicing a previous thought and looking away from his friend. After a few more moments of silence, he croaked, "I'm going to head home." He stood up and Hatori did the same.
"I'll drive you there."
Shigure looked at him and waved his hand cheerfully. "No, it's okay, really…"
"I want to drive you home. You've just lost a fair amount of blood and had a bit of a shock. I'm not going to let you walk off on your own. What kind of a doctor would that make me? Something could happen." Hatori explained.
Shigure sighed, knowing that his friend would not take no for an answer in such a situation. "Okay, Ha-san."
Minutes later, Shigure was sitting comfortably in the front passenger seat of Hatori's car, gazing out through the window at the beautiful night sky above. There were no clouds to be seen tonight, meaning there were millions and millions of stars twinkling away without a care in the world. Shigure almost felt jealous of them, floating up there far away from all the troubles and frustrations of life. He sat there in silence for a while, watching the stars dreamily, but then remembered he had forgotten to say something very important to Hatori.
"Ha-san," He croaked. "Thanks for helping me out with Akito-san."
Hatori felt a smile tugging at his lips as he carefully watched the road ahead of him. "I guess we're even now."
Shigure grinned and went back to his stargazing. But then he remembered something again, and suddenly realised it had actually been gnawing away in the back of his mind ever since he had gone to visit Akito, ever so faintly. "Um. Ha-san?" He said raspily.
"Yeah?" came the quiet reply.
"Have you noticed… something different about Akito-san?"
There was a pregnant pause in which the air around them was uncomfortably still. Hatori shifted and asked, "What makes you think that?"
"Come on, Ha-san. Don't tell me you didn't notice it." Shigure said, his eyes wandering back up to the twinkling stars above him. They seemed to attract his eyes, like light attracts lonely moths. "His room is so cold, even in this hot summer weather. And he himself has a strange feeling about him, more malicious and unforgiving than usual. A feeling of… insanity, or something."
Hatori sighed. "I did notice it." He replied, running a hand through his dark hair. "I've told him to keep his windows open during the day to let some light in, but he won't. Still, though… his room wouldn't be able to get that cold just from having curtains drawn, would it? Also he doesn't seem to be getting very ill from it. He's just been getting the usual fever he gets sometimes."
"Something weird is going on here, Ha-san."
"I know. But despite that, I can't disobey my orders."
"I wasn't saying that."
"But it's what you were thinking, wasn't it?"
To that, Shigure did not respond. The rest of the car ride was spent in a thick, heavy silence. It almost drove Shigure mad; he felt as though he was drowning in a bog of noiselessness, being pulled further and further down until he couldn't breathe at all anymore…
Just when he thought he would start screaming just to create some kind of sound to slice the silence, Hatori pulled up on Shigure's front lawn and slowed to a stop. Shigure couldn't have scrambled out of the car any quicker than he did. He gave Hatori a quick "thankyou", then stepped up onto the veranda, listening to the sound of Hatori's car slowly fading from his ears as it drove away.
"Tadaima," he called out, while noting how strangely quiet the house was. It startled him for a few moments as he wondered if the others had taken off somewhere, but then Tohru peered around the sliding door from the living room and smiled.
"Okaeri nasa-" She began, but her eyes widened as her gaze fell upon Shigure. His arms were wrapped in bloodied bandages and… were those bruises around his neck? "Shigure-san!!" She gasped. "You're bleeding!!"
Shigure looked down at his arms and saw the blood seeping through the bandages. "Ugh-- they're still bleeding? And Ha-san just left... damn it."
"What happened?!" Tohru asked, panic rising in her voice as she ran forward to inspect his injuries. "Your entire forearms are bandaged…" She took one of his arms and raised it with the gentlest, most sensitive touch she could manage. After all, she didn't want to hurt him. Still holding his torn up arm, she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and asked in a tiny voice, "What happened to you?"
Hearing Tohru's commotion, Yuki and Kyou had appeared in the hallway beside the living room door and were staring wide-eyed at their cousin.
"Shigure?" Yuki said.
Kyou looked sympathetically at Shigure. "It was Akito, wasn't it?"
Shigure forced a smile and waved them off carefully so he wouldn't hurt his arm. "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just a few little scratches."
"Scratches that are still bleeding," Yuki pointed out, "And dark bruises around your neck. Your voice sounds horrible, by the way."
"Eh-heh.." Shigure chuckled.
"Shigure-san… did Akito-san really do this?" Tohru asked, looking up at him with sad eyes. Shigure felt something tugging at his heartstrings. Why did she have to look at him like that?
"Let's all go into the living room and I'll explain," he suggested. "I'm tired and need to sit down."
"Hai!" Tohru said enthusiastically. "I'll go and get some new bandages for you!!" And she ran off at the speed of light before Shigure had a chance to protest.
"There you go!" Tohru smiled as she finished wrapping the second bandage around Shigure's left arm. "All done. Hopefully it won't bleed anymore…" She said kindly. Shigure looked at her and could have sworn he could feel the kindness radiating from her. He smiled and bowed his head.
"Arigatou. Tohru-kun is the goddess of kindness." At this remark Tohru looked down at the floor, her face turning as red as a sunburnt lobster, and mumbled things in embarrassment.
Kyou rolled his eyes and leaned against the table they were all sitting around, with his head in one hand. "Get on with it, you old man."
"Ah… well… I didn't get very far with Akito-san," Shigure explained, voice still crackly from the damage inflicted on his throat. "And as you can see, my sudden visit didn't go down very well. I guess I let my anger get the best of me, and said some things that weren't too wise…"
"What did you say?" Yuki asked. Shigure sweated and shook his head vigorously.
"That doesn't matter. I screwed up, and I regret it… because I wasn't able to save Tohru-kun's memory." He looked down at the table in front of him dejectedly, then his eyes drifted to Tohru. "I'm sorry."
Tohru looked as though she was about to cry. Crystal tears brimmed her green eyes and her cheeks were rosy. "This happened to Shigure-san because of me?" She asked, motioning to his arms and throat. "I am so sorry… I shouldn't have let you go to see him!! I was feeling very shocked and saddened at the time, so I didn't bother to stop you! It's all my fault…" and a tear trickled down her cheek.
"Honda-san," Yuki said, frowning. "It's not your fault. None of us knew this would happen."
Shigure nodded. "He's right, Tohru-kun. And I don't blame you. I was foolish to think I could change Akito-san's mind. Besides, I'm fine now aren't I?" He mustered up the most cheerful, happy smile he could to reassure the young woman. But her tears didn't stop. She had both hands clasped over her mouth in anxiety and chose to look at the floor. She wouldn't meet the gazes of any of the others.
"I'm sorry…" she said as more tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Hey…" Shigure said softly. "It's not your fault." He patted her shoulder gently to comfort her.
"Honda-san, it's okay," Yuki said sympathetically. "It's going to be okay. No one is blaming you. This isn't your fault."
"If it's anyone's fault," Kyou interrupted angrily, "It's Akito's. That bastard. What kind of a person goes around tearing a strip out of their family members? That really pisses me off. Shigure did nothing to him."
Shigure couldn't help but feel touched at the protectiveness Kyou was displaying towards him, something that didn't happen all too often.
Still, Tohru was crying. Her tears seemed to be never-ending as she sat trembling and sniffling on the floor.
"Honda-san…" Yuki whispered. "Please don't cry."
But she wouldn't stop. She couldn't stop. She had hurt the ones she cared about most.
She hated herself for that.
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A/N: Maa… 2nd chapter wa owatta~ XD I hope it had L33T EXCITEMENT SK1LLZ… or something.
Is this getting FREAKY AND SERIOUS yet?! Also… can anyone guess what the pairing in this fic is gonna be yet? *cackles*