(First loss)

Sakura dreamed while she slept, tossing and turning. It was the best she could do to try and get away from the splats of black and red throughout the place she was in. Her body burned up like it was on fire, but suddenly the pain and throbbing stopped.

The red and black cleared up; almost 'crawled' away to what it seemed like her, revealing a beautiful garden. Cherry blossoms flew among the sweet wind, carps swam in the small pond and in the brook with an elaborate wood bridge arched over it. The green grass stood proud and tall among the shrine that was across. Sakura was dazzled by the presence of it all, and wondered if this, in fact, could be a dream.

Of course it was, but for then she couldn't tell; it was so real. She could actually feel the wind making its way through her hair, giving her the exact smooth feel when her beloved thunder demon would run his fingers through her short locks.

She stood before a bridge with the brook separating her from a group of merry people who were happily talking and drinking rice wine on the other side. She had never seen so many people of different ages making confrontations so smoothly. Just then, she saw a figure that she was familiar to.

A male...long raven hair tied into a braid, well dressed, tanned skin; she gasped.

'Hiten?' she thought. But it couldn't be. This male was human. Then...it must be...

"Brother!" she called out. "It's me, Sakura!"

Her brother seemed startled and taken aback on the other side to have someone call him 'brother.' He looked at Sakura, though, and his eyes went wide. He set down his bowl of rice wine and smiled weakly at her. He then stood up, bringing the festive music and merrymaking to a halt. All the figures stood up and made their entrance.

Sakura knew them all. Every single one of them. They were people from her village who had deceased in the fire that had struck, now so peaceful and calm and, to Sakura's relief, they seemed content.

"Sakura..." her brother said and made his way across the bridge. His flowing robes trailed behind him and shone with a light of radiance. "You're here."

"Yes, I am, brother!" Sakura said with tears of joy in her eyes and went to embrace him. "I'm so happy to..."

As she got to the bridge, she hit an invisible barrier and rubbed her forehead. Setting her hand on the walls that blocked her physically from her brother, she gazed into his black eyes.

"Why can't I get to you?" she asked in a shaking voice. Her brother opened his mouth and spoke.

"Sakura, you are at the boundary of the living and the dead. The side that you are on is for the living, and the side that we are at is for the dead." He took a deep breath and continued to speak.

"All people who come to the boundary, however, are because the dead has summoned them. And that doesn't happen very often, Sakura. It is either to bring the living person straight over to the side of the dead or to take someone's life away. We, as the dead, control life."

"So...what do you want with me, brother?" she asked.

"You were bit." He said. "By a venomous reptile. While you viewed the splotches of black and red, the undertakers took the poison out of your body and spared you with my commands."

"I was bit?" she whispered. And as her brother pointed to the bite marks on her palm, she understood. "Namie..." she growled in a vengeful whisper. Her brother placed his hand on her stomach as she lifted her eyes to his again.

"I would have been an uncle, Sakura." He said mournfully. "Your child..."

"What about my child?" she asked.

"Your baby will stay with us now." He remarked, hand still on her stomach. When he removed his hand from her, a glowing light protruded around his hand and took the human form of a healthy baby girl dressed in white.

"My baby!" Sakura exclaimed and reached out for her.

To her surprise, her brother stepped back into the barrier; into the world of the dead. Sakura felt her face draining itself from all warmth.

"What...are you doing, brother?" she questioned with an expression of horror.

"Your baby's life has ended before it could take a breath of the world." He said, lifting a finger to the baby's forehead and looked into its blood red eyes. The baby cooed happily, not knowing what was going on. "She has Hiten's eyes, does she not?" he asked. "Until your life gets taken away from you, Sakura, I shall take my niece under my care as her uncle, as your brother."

"But..."

"I'm sorry, Sakura." He said. "You must return to the world of the living now. I'm sorry."

"No..." she wailed as she saw her baby happily cooing on the other side. "What do you mean? Please don't take her away! Please..."

Hiten shook Sakura again. She had been moaning in her sleep the whole time and he had to say that it was critical. A thin layer of sweat formed on her forehead as she thrashed wildly, like she was trapped in a nightmare she couldn't get out of.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" he asked desperately. As he asked, Sakura woke with a twitch; but fell back onto her pillow after coming to. A while later, Hiten could hear sniffling from the girl, and something in his demon senses told him that there was one less life in the room.

"What's wrong?" he asked again.

Sakura tried hard not to cry anymore and forcefully held it in. "Our baby..."

"What about?" he said. "Is she kicking again?"

"She won't be able to kick anymore, Hiten..." she choked. "We've lost her."

Hiten blinked his eyes several times. The night sky was blank now with no clouds, only the moon and stars hung in the heavens.

"No..." he rasped after sensing his soon-to-be baby's lifelessness. "How..."

"How doesn't matter, Hiten." Sakura wasn't able to hold it in anymore. With another choke she flung her arms around Hiten's waist. "Our hope...our child...our baby...she's died. My dead...dead brother came to me in my dream and took her away to the side of the dead, he said he would look after her as her uncle...she's dead, Hiten. She's lifeless..."

And she broke down in his arms in tears of sorrow. No loss could measure up to this much pain and suffering. To know that she was carrying a life...but then to know that the life didn't exist...

It was too big a loss.

(sobs) And therefore, none of you shall feel sorry for Namie when she gets punched in the face. I shall enjoy writing the scene, not that I am an (cough) evil person...

So shall I pass the tissues around?