(You can live)

The overly bright sunlight that shone through the window of the room slowly made its way up the thunder demon's eyes. Wincing in pain, Hiten opened his eyes; just to be hit in the eyes with bright light. He restrained himself from moving, for Sakura still seemed to be sleeping against his chest. Laying her down on the floor, he quietly left the room to see if he could grab something to eat for Sakura. He couldn't even remember the last time he had eaten. Was it before or after the battle? He didn't really give a damn.

'If Manten were alive…' He thought.

Yes…if Manten had been alive, he would have been cooking this moment. Probably something that only fit his sense of taste and neither his nor Sakura's. Probably something like leek patties or marinated pork that was bloody raw. Then he would have been staring at the meal in disbelief while Manten smiled like an idiot.

"What the hell is this?" he would have said. Manten would have insisted that it was food, and that he shouldn't be so picky in his eating.

"You've always been a picky eater, Hiten." Manten's voice rang out in the back of his head. "Learn to accept different things."

Looking at the empty, lifeless kitchen, Hiten stared into nothingness. He lost everything.

He truly lost everything.

And now the last person that he had in his life would be lost from him.

Forever. Forever and ever and ever.

They said that once you lost everything, you'd be appreciative for the last thing that you ever had left. Sakura had lost everything. And to her, living with him may have been the last thing left that was important to her.

Dozens of voices and flashbacks played back deep down into his life.

'Hiten! As the firstborn male of the family, you will have to carry on my duty. Why do you fool around so clumsily?'

'Hiten, don't worry about your father. He's just worried that you might have gotten hurt, playing with the Raigekijin.'

'An-chan! Wait for me!'

'Please…spare our lives! If not I, then I beg you to spare my children…'

'There's another one of them troops that we can have fun with, brother!'

'You don't know how I feel, do you!'

'An-chan, surely this girl must be deceiving you…'

'I have a bad feeling about this, Hiten…don't leave me…'

'Who am I to complain? Just as long as I can be your brother again, I'm happy…'

'Listen to me, you stupid bastard!'

'I'm…I'm grateful…'

'I had a bad feeling…if I hadn't, you would have died by now…'

"Damn it all!" grabbing his head, Hiten cried out. It felt as if something deep down inside was tearing him apart from limb to limb. For once in his life he felt…something that others called guilt.

'Why didn't I just listen?' he thought miserably. 'Then maybe…just maybe…'

The flash of the hybrid's demon sword plunging into his younger brother's heart flashed by his mind once again.

He remembered that as he closed his eyes and grasped onto the Raigekijin as if it was his very flesh and blood; when he knew that he would get sliced in half; Sakura had taken out and thrown the dagger that was blocking her artery.

Her eyes…were flashing with bittersweet pain, her locks flying up as her body followed gravity, the warm liquid sprayed out into different directions.

"No…" he rasped and closed his eyes tight. "Maybe…I'll just go to sleep, and find that I haven't left for the battle yet…"

He ran his hands over his forehead and winced as sharp pain hit him. He brought his hand back down to see that it was covered in dried blood.

"I remember, this was from that damned half breed as his head hit mine…" he muttered and brought his hand back up again to his forehead. He traced the thick outline of the dried blood. Running his finger down, feeling the texture, he felt his finger meet up with something hard.

The shikon jewels. The three that were embedded safely in his forehead.

Just then, an idea sprang into his head. Why didn't he think of it before? If this could heal demons, then it would surely be able to heal humans as well. Forgetting about how he was going to get food, Hiten turned around and stepped into the room breathing heavily. Sakura seemed to have been awake for quite a while, and now she stared at him with surprise.

"Hiten, where…"

"Look, Sakura!" Hiten exclaimed excitedly. "I have a way to make you live!"

And heextracted a shikon shard from his forehead.

"What…?" Sakura stared at him in shock. "Hiten…"

"This shard…it's known for healing demonic injuries. If I put this in your wound, it'll surely be able to heal you!"

Sakura said nothing. All she did was smile slightly. "I see." She whispered. Hiten didn't seem to see her grim expression as he rambled on.

"And…and once you get better, we'll do everything that we had in mind! Like…we can cook together, and we'll just relax…I mean, I promise I won't hunt as much as I did, and if you'd like we could…"

"Have children together." Sakura finished. "Hiten, it all sounds like a dream…"

"I know." Hiten smiled. "So let me…"

He was suddenly taken aback by Sakura's reaction. She lifted a hand to move his away and smiled weakly.

"Don't." she said, leaving Hiten into a state of shock. The shock overcame him and he laughed in disbelief.

"Don't be stupid, I'm sure it'll work…just let me try and…"

"Hiten, don't." Sakura said sternly.

"But Sakura, why?"

"Just…" Sakura whispered. "Don't."

Gasp! The shock! But why? You must be thinking.

I must admit, I've laid off this fanfic a long time. Haha...please don't kill me, I've just been kinda busy. But now I'll be able to write more, and hopefully I'll be able to finish off this fic and work on my other unfinished works. I've been thinking of finishing off Drowning petals, I haven't even looked into it for God knows how long...