Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter 6
Kazuma stretched. His wrist was broken and so were three of his ribs. However, he was still anxious to go to school. He wanted to see his friends again, Jay hadn't let anyone in since the last time and Kuwabara had never asked.
Kuwabara snorted, 'Jay'. He had always thought his grandparents must of been a little strange in the head. His mother had told him his grandfather had named his dad. His grandfather had spent time in the West and was firm about giving their son a western name. Kazuma personally thought it was the ugliest name he had ever heard, though that could have been influenced by the person, not the actual name.
Kazuma yawned and the nice, but talkative, old nurse came in to serve him breakfast. He had learned her name, Yoyuki, his second day in the hospital, it was only his third. He hadn't been to school in six days, though that was including the weekend and the Friday he had skipped out half way through. He missed Eikichi.
"How are you feeling today Kazuma?" He smiled.
"I'm fine."
"They want to release you this afternoon. Are you ready and caught up in school?"
"Yes, my mom brought it by for me earlier."
"Are you excited about seeing your friends again?"
He nodded as she put his meal of oatmeal and orange juice in front of him.
"Now, you make sure you eat up, you may think you're strong but you still need your energy." They shared a smile, and the old nurse, Yoyuki, left. Kuwabara ate absent-mindedly and studied the scenery outside his window.
His family had come for a brief visit yesterday. He figured they would come when it was time for him to check out. He gulped down his orange juice. He wondered what Team Urameshi was thinking. He wondered what they told everyone when he hadn't gone to school. If his gang heard the rumors of him getting beat up by a rival gang they would be out for blood. He was glad he had friends he could count on, he had a feeling he would need them.
He pushed his tray aside and made his way to the bathroom. He was a little clumsy on his feet, he had twisted his ankle. He got inside and locked the door. He was looking forward to having a shower at home. He didn't exactly want to see Jay but he was pretty sure that Jay wouldn't do anything. When would he get the chance? Kazuma was positive, that if he had a second chance, he could have stopped his father.
However, all these sentiments were lost when Jay stepped into the room. It was the first time he had visited alone after the mess with Eikichi and Hiei. Jay slipped in like it was natural for two people to be sharing a small bathroom. Kazuma had forgotten to lock the door. Kazuma had only come to splash some water on his face. He felt paralyzed as he watched his father watching him in the mirror. He looked angry.
"Hello Kazuma." Kazuma nodded back a little weakly. "I have some things to discuss with you."
Kuwabara's fathers voice sounded cold. He had a cruel glint in his eyes. He grabbed one of Kuwabara's wrists off the sink ledge and spun him around. He came closer and Kuwabara backed up, his back pressing against the cold off-white sink.
"You lied to me. You said you didn't have friends." Kazuma looked horrified. "I might not mind this so much Kazuma if all your friends weren't boys." Kazuma nodded.
"I don't think you understand." He roughly pushed Kazuma, hurting his already broken ribs.
Kazuma tried gathering his spirit energy for an attack. Only to find it muted. By this point Kuwabara was terrified. Why couldn't he gather any spirit energy? He knew he was no match for the other man physically. Jay was just as strong or stronger than he looked. Kuwabara's fear gave way to confusion.
"I've got a little something for you." Before Kazuma could register what was happening he felt a hard jab just above his side and a sharp pain flow through him so that by the end he lay on the floor gasping.
"Remember that, don't you? It's a little something called spirit energy. You might have some if I guessed right. Unluckily for you I have the power to mute it and you and I both know that I'm much stronger than you Kazuma. No matter how hard you try I always will be. So please, if you want to keep living, never lie to me again." Jay gave one last shove at Kazuma with his foot before leaving.
When Kazuma came back into his hospital room Jay was gone. Kuwabara positioned himself back on his bed, his spirit energy returning to him slowly.
He sighed. It would be another few hours before he checked out. He was disturbed by this new discovery. He couldn't even protect himself. Jay could do whatever he wanted to him and he wouldn't be able to stop him.
Kazuma needed help, then he had an idea. A gun! Jay might be stronger and have enormous spirit energy but he wasn't immortal. It would be self defense after all. His mother and sister would hate him. Who would believe him that his father attacked him? No one. That however, did not matter to Kazuma. All he wanted was to stop his father before he started. And if that did not work Kazuma would do the next best thing. Remove the victim from the victimizer, he would kill himself.
Kazuma was sleeping when the nurse came with the paper work to release him. She tapped him gently on the shoulder. He looked oddly at peace. One eye slid open, then the other.
"Good morning Kazuma, or should I say afternoon. Your family are on their way here to pick you up, I got the paper work right here."
"Thank you and good morning Yoyuki-san."
"Come, I brought you clothes so now you can change out of these hospital gowns and wear the clothes you came in with. They had to be washed, they were full of blood. How anyone could beat you up is beyond me, not that you're strong, but I think you are the sweetest and most polite boy I've ever seen in a gang fight."
"Uh...thanks, I think."
"I'll leave you to get dressed, you better hurry though. You're family will be here by the time you're done changing."
Yoyuki left and Kazuma started freeing himself off the dreaded hospital gowns. He hated them, honestly, they looked like dresses. He slipped his old clothes back on and squirmed his way off the hospital bed. There was a sharp knock at the door and Kazuma hobbled over to it and flung it open.
The old nurse smiled at him and led him to the waiting room where his family was. Shizuru was still scolding him about being in a gang in the first place and his mother went all teary eyed and vowed revenge on whoever had hurt he precious baby boy.
The Kuwabara family loaded themselves into a small car and drove off from the parking lot.
Kuwabara's mother eagerly reminded him that there was school tomorrow, she told him that she and Jay would be out for the night to go for dinner. Shizuru joined in with her chatter and scolding.
Kuwabara lay his head in his arms, a headache already forming. He blocked out his sister and mother as much as he could.
They pulled up to an apartment building and they all climbed out.
"Oh, and Kazuma," Kuwabara's mother added, "you're grounded."
Once they all got into the apartment and settled for bed Kazuma took a shower. It was refreshing. He now lay in bed devising plans to come into possession of a gun. He couldn't think of anyone he knew who could get it for him. If he asked the wrong person it might look suspiscious.
He turned over, his wrist felt like lead and he was really tired. Earlier he had tried to scratch the skin under his cast and ended up with a pen, a marker, and a few sticks under there. One was poking him now and he was getting frustrated.
Now who could get him a gun? He couldn't just go into dark alleyways and ask to buy a gun. Well, he could, but it went against his better judgment. He wondered it Koenma would throw him out of Team Urameshi, he wondered if his gang would hate him, he wondered if he would go to jail.
Jail. At least he could defend himself there. It probably wouldn't be so bad. They'd probably send him to Juvenile hall anyway. There would go his future. He reasoned that his future wasn't looking so bright anyway.
The way he figured it he had two choices.
1) kill his father-or himself, end his future, but also end the torture.
2) stick it out, they both live, endure torture but have a future.
Kazuma was so tired, in a matter of minutes he had dropped off to sleep, mulling his decision over in his mind.
The next morning Kuwabara awoke to an annoying beeping sound. Face muffled in his pillow he reached for his alarm clock. Once turned off he forced himself up and to the bathroom. He looked wearily in the mirror to find dark circles under his eyes.
He had made his decision. He was going to get a gun. The thought of sticking it out was simply unbearable, simply not a plausible option. He could try but he would never make it. And what would his future be? His father would destroy everything close to him. There was also the fact that Jay could kill him before he moved out, thus ending his future there and making his endurance end in vain.
With his grim decision made he collected his school supplies and left the house before anyone had even woken up.
He walked along slowly. He was still tired and was fighting to keep his eyelids open. Occasionally he would bump into someone and get a few curses yelled at him. Little did he know the next person he was destined to bump into was Kurama.
Kuwabara ran into another person, mumbling a barely intelligible apology before he was stopped by a hand pulling him back as he walked. He nearly stumbled back wards into a building wall before he caught his balance. He turned and was surprised to find Kurama with a mask of concern on his face.
"Kuwabara, are you all right? You seem a little off balance."
"I'm...fine."
"Would you mind if I walked with you for a bit?"
Kazuma shook his head. Kurama fell in step next to him.
"We never got to ask you at the hospital, but what happened?"
"nothing."
Kurama knew he was lying but let it go.
"Hiei's taking care of Eikichi now, did you know?"
"Yes." Kazuma let out a little smile.
"Why did you want to get rid of Eikichi if you don't mind my asking."
"My father doesn't like animals."
"He's put up with it so long, so how come he made you get rid of it now?"
"Well, you see Kurama, he hasn't really put up with anything because he wasn't here."
Kurama was confused.
"Wouldn't he have to be gone quite a while for you to hide a cat?"
"He was."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"That's all right."
"But about at the hospital?"
"My sister told him I was in a gang and maybe he thought you guys were it?"
"Does that mean you're not allowed to see us?"
Kazuma smiled bitterly.
"I really don't think that will matter soon."
"Why?"
Kazuma never answered. Kurama looked over at him, a little worried.
"Is something wrong? I feel that something's not right here."
"Nothings wrong and nothing it not, not right."
"Okay.......if you need to talk or a place to stay you can always ask me."
"Thanks Kurama."
"We better get going to school. Please don't forget my offer Kazuma."
Kazuma nodded watching his feet.
Kazuma spent the day in school. He did well, better than he had for a long time. He had gotten all his homework assignments finished and had nothing more to do. Needless to say some teachers were skeptical. After all, Kazuma had once been an F student.
Kazuma had been tired all day, yet his work was top notch. He had his whole day planned out. He decided to start looking for a place to get a gun when his parents went for dinner. Jay disgusted him, leading his mom on like that. But he had bigger problems, like how he was going to get the money for a gun once he found one.
His mind wandered back to the conversation with Kurama. Talk? He'd love to talk. It just wouldn't do any good. Kurama would probably be disgusted or laugh in his face. He stopped his train of thought right there. Kurama didn't deserve that, he knew him better than to say that stuff about him. Kurama was nice and polite, even if he was disgusted he would never let on. Kurama would sympathize with just about anyone.
Suddenly Kuwabara felt depressed. He did want to talk, he wanted someone to trust, someone that wouldn't hate him. Fear prevented him from exploring the idea any further. He would rather just suffer than be looked down upon like that, to have people disgusted with him. Kuwabara's depression turned to anger and hurt. How could Jay do that?
Kazuma softly impressed onto his mind that it was over. Over. O-v-e-r. He just had to deal whatever had happened by himself. No one would help him. He had only himself to blame. Of course, if Jay did anything that would totally change the situation.
If Jay even touched Kazuma, Kazuma would kill him. Kuwabara found himself in the realms of hopelessness once again. The only way to protect himself, he was sure, was to get a gun. It didn't have to be fancy or new. As long as it got the job done.
The school bell rang, signifying the end of the day. Kazuma got up and sluggishly made his way out of the classroom. Tonight, yes tonight, he would get that gun. Once he had that gun things would be in his hands, not Jay's. Once he had that gun, he would be safe, he would be free. At least that's what he told himself.
AN: Sorry it's only a little bit longer, I'm improving slowly but surely (in the length of the chapters I mean). Sorry if it disappointed anyone. Thank you all for reading! Sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes.