The Last Rain

Chapter Eight: A Wolf Hails The King

No…Yuki….Yuki…don't go…you cant…you have to…no…NO! Tohru sat up in bed, her cheeks stained with the slowly drying tears. What's happening out there…?

Since about an hour go, she'd had the strangest feelings. As if he was never going to return to her. As if he was losing to a power greater than his own, in a battle of life or death.

The fear was growing stronger as he grew weaker. She could sense it.

She got out of the bed they usually shared, and walked to the window. She opened it, and was met with the raging wind and rain.

Ignoring the temperature, she knelt down and leant on the window sill. Please…Send something….Anything. It doesn't matter if it's an animal, a human or an angel….Just send something to save my Yuki. Please…

-

"What… What do you want…from me…?" Yuki whispered. He felt weaker by the second. His clothes were stained with blood and mud, and he could taste the hot metallic blood in his mouth. His brother was still holding him. He was almost grateful for the arms that kept him upright, because if Akito let go he'd probably fall back down the hill.

Akito looked at his brother. The blood showed clearly on his porcelain white skin, which had paled considerably in the last hour. He sneered once more. "I want you to submit yourself to me, and swear to return my love for you."

Yuki shook his head. "That…Brother, is one thing I cannot do. My heart…It belongs to another. And no matter what you do to me, I know I am safe. Her love…Is protecting me."

Save my Yuki.

Akito let go of his brother's shoulders. Yuki slumped over backwards so he was facing the sky once more. He tried not to swallow the blood in his mouth. As a result it slid out from his mouth and dripped down his face.

Please… Someone do something.

"What is that supposed to mean…?"

"You can kill me… But my soul will be delivered. Her heart will protect me, wherever I go."

Protect Yuki.

"Are you saying you will not comply?"

Please.

"…Yes."

Before he knew it, the point of Akito's sword was digging into his neck. "How dare you! You don't realise that I have the upper hand here! You can't… You can't disobey me like that… You can't! I won't… Allow it. You have to choose. It's me, or your life."

He dug the sword deeper, and began to draw blood. Yuki winced. "I cannot betray the love I have now."

Akito's face came into view. He looked furious. He glared at Yuki, and put both hands on the hilt of his sword, as if he was about to plunge it straight in. "You have spoken your last words."

Yuki shut his eyes.

SEND SOMEONE!

Yuki tried to block out the pain. This is it. Goodbye…Tohru. I'm…Sorry.

-

"Dad!" Kyo turned his head from the horse. Haru looked to. There, slipping in hat seemed like rivers of flowing mud, was a very young girl, with dirty red hair and tears running down her face.

"Keiko!" Kyo leapt down from the horse, and began to wade through the thick mud, which seemed like it would sweep his daughter away. Finally hereached her, and picked her up, hugging her tghter than ever. He closed his eyes. "Don't ever leave me like that again….Don't ever let go of my hand…"

"I'm sorry…"

Haru smiled from the horse. "Well, we've got Keiko, now Yuki's the last one to find."

"Keiko…." Kyo carried her over to the horse and put her on. She held onto Haru's back as her father hoisted himself up. "…You haven't seen your other uncle, have you?"

"Two brothers." The girl said, the tears no longer falling from her eyes.

"What?" Haru turned around and looked at the girl. "What do you mean brothers?"

"One with black hair, the other's was grey. And… The one with grey hair saved me."

Kyo and Haru looked at eachother. "It…It couldn't be…Could it?" Said Haru.

"No…There's no way he could have survived out here on his own. Not after never having seen the outside before."

"Well… Akito was the kind of person who never let anything stand in his way. He was very determined. But he's also capable of killing someone without caring. He hates people so much."

Kyo looked at his baby girl. "Keiko, where were they?"

"The hill. There was a wolf… And-"

Someone…Help him…

"What?" Haru spurred on the horse and began to canter through the mud.

"Haru, what are you doing?"

"We have to get to them…If there are wolves… They'll be gathering now. It's night.

-

Akito had been pushing his sword down a little more every minute. But now Yuki's time was up. He spoke once more.

"Those were the last words you'll ever speak. And here are the last words you'll ever hear." He leant down so he could feel Yuki's cold breath on his face. He smirked, and licked a little blood of his brother's cheek. "Death…To the king of Sohma."

A tear ran from one of Yuki's closed eyes, and he closed them harder. He awaited the pain, and the death. The one thing she never taught me. How…Do you say goodbye…?

There was a sound like a shot through the air, and wind whistling past. Akito cried out, and Yuki opened his eyes.

There was an arrow in Akito's chest, right in the centre. His eyes were wide open. The sword was still leaning on Yuki's throat, but it fell from between Akito's fingers and slipped to the side, only grazing a little of Yuki's neck. Blood seeped from the wound and dripped onto Yuki's face.

"Ak…Akito…?"

Akito fell, his body leaning towards the edge of the slope. Yuki extended his arm and stopped him from falling.

He used what must have been the last of his strength, and pulled Akito back up. He once again lay flat on his back, the energy almost completely gone. Akito slumped over him, his face next to Yuki's, looking at him.

Yuki felt a sudden pain in his stomach, and cried out. Akito was glarng at him, and was forcing his fingers into the wound on Yuki's stomach.

Yuki winced and tried to pull Akito off. Finally he turned over, rolling himself onto his brother's body.

"Why…?"

"I want you to feel the same as me! I want you to feel my pain."

"Feel this!"

Yuki grabbed Akito's limp arm and put hishand against his bloody chest, so his heart beat pulsated through Akito's hand. It was quivering like a bow string.

Akito opened his eyes even wider. "Wh-…What-"

"I feel your blood…And you feel mine. We're brothers. Your heart pushes my blood, and mine pushes yours. You're trying to draw your own blood, brother."

Akito felt tears welling in his wide black eyes. "I…Wanted you to be the last thing I see."

"I…I will be."

Akito smiled…The first he had without being sinister. He felt Yuki's cold hand holding his, and his brother's heart softly beating against it.

He felt his eyes slowly drifting closed, and breathed out one last long sigh. His pain was over.

Yuki looked at his brother's quiet face, and sighed. It's finally over…

But it wasn't. Suddenly he felt the whole of the ground below him shaking. He looked around, and dropped his brother's dead hand. "Wh-…What's ha…happening…?"

Suddenly the rocks gave way, and the entire hill top came loose. Now the mountain was almost twice as high, and Yuki fell with Akito's body, along with rocks the size of horses and endless mud.

He fell onto the rocks, and felt as if his entire body had been crushed. He looked around. Akito's body was nowhere in sight.

"A…Akito…?" He made himself get up, and tried to find the corpse. "Akito!" He slipped in the mud. It was almost waist deep now, the rain still falling.

The corpse was likely under the rocks or drifting with the mudslide now. Yuki found a big rock, and collapsed on it.

The energy was now totally lost. Blood was still running from him as if he had an endless supply. He smiled. Finally…Can I have peace now…?

The sound of sloshing mud was getting louder. Yuki closed his eyes. He once again tried to block out everything he could sense.

"Y-YUKI!"

-

AN: I lied. Next chapter is last, then epilogue. I always do this…

AN2: Will Yuki live? Or die? Is Akito really dead? Is that mud carrying disease? What's the horse's name? Find out, in the next and final edition of: The Last Rain!

AN3: I'm not good at writing landscape…