I do not own Princess Mononoke

a/n: moving along (I guess the filler made a curve in the story)

Chapter 8 – Nothing is Coincidence

Her face got uncomfortably hot as she stood over the bubbling pot that was supposed to be dinner. She wasn't hungry, but she turned the stove off and waited until the last of the bubbles popped. As she traveled over to the cupboards to retrieve a bowl and utensils, the phone rang. She solemnly set the bowl down on the counter and picked the phone up on the fifth ring.

"Hello?" She tiredly announced her half-attention. There was scrabble in the background, like things being rummaged and people scurrying around. Someone was breathing hard into the receiver.

"San! It's Taka! You have to come to the hospital now! He's injured badly…like…L-like really hurt! You have to come!" Kai's voice strained to form his messaged. He sounded distressed and panicked. It took San a second to realize that Taka must really be hurt for Kai to lose it completely like he did. She slammed the phone down, dug through the pillows for her phone and ran out the door. She ran hard to the hospital, and felt like she was flying over the pavement. Something was squeezing her heart as she inched closer to her brother. It squeezed and moved her heart around her chest, as if trying to prevent her from seeing her brother. As she ran, she passed a boy walking the other way with a bat in his hand. He had a blood splatter near the top of his shirt and half his face. There were flecks of red spotting the arm holding the bat, but the bat itself looked clean. He had bold and defined features; his lips were straight, and dark eyes locked her eyes. He had large eyes, and perfect lips. He had an oval, almost almond shaped jaw-line with molded curves. Her eyes locked on his for half a second, but she kept running.

'That guy…' She thought as she ran her hardest. '…He looked…' She began, but then she thought, '…That boy looked familiar…'

The hospital doors arrived and she dashed in, looking every which way to where her brother was. She heard bustling everywhere and everyone seemed busy- too busy to direct her to Taka.

"San?" Kai's voice trembled as he called out to her. She turned towards his voice and swallowed hard. His hands were covered in blood, and his face was smeared with blood from his hands.

"Kai!" She rushed over to him. "What happened? Where'd all this blood come from?" She tried cleaning up his face with the back of her hand. He grabbed her hand and ran to an emergency room. There, their brother was screaming in pain while his hands covered his face and Shinji was at his side. Before the doctors could rush him out, Shinji punched him in the stomach to help the doctors remove Taka's hands from his face. San backed away from the room and her heart started to beat faster than when she was running. Blood was running down his cheeks like rivers. It was like he was crying blood and his screams showed his pain. Shinji was finally pushed out of the room by force, and saw Kai and San.

"Shinji! What happened?" She turned towards a bloodied Shinji. He was more covered in Taka's blood than Kai. His clothes were splattered, and his hands were almost painted red. He quickly wiped excess blood off on his pants and walked over to watch from the window.

"Some punk swung as him hard at the eyes during a street brawl." Shinji pointed between his eyes. His glasses were missing, probably broken, but he didn't seem to care at this point.

"Swng at him? With a fist?" She said startled as she thought of brass knuckles and spiked gloves.

"A bat." He gritted. San stopped. Her eyes started to hurt, but she couldn't tell if it was from anger or sadness.

'A bat…' She repeated. A bat… "Who was it?" She calmly asked while thinking of the boy that passed her.

"This ass-wipe Kaname. Real son-of-a-bitch if you get what I mean." He kept his own eyes locked on Taka's suffering.

"Was he wearing a white shirt and black pants?" She remembered the boy. Shinji glanced over at her.

"You saw him?" He started to turn, while vengeance was burning inside of him.

"He was walking…towards my apartment building. He still had a bat in his hand." She told him. '…and he looked so…'

"I'll be at his side when he wakes up." Shinji left them, and started running out the door.

'…he looked sad.' She figured his expression out. 'Why? Why did you do it? How can you possible feel sad? Do you know how I feel? How dare you. You have no right.' She scolded the boy with her own anger.

"San." Kai broke her thoughts. "He's gonna be okay, right?"

"I…I don't know, Kai…I don't know." She tried to be strong for him. How could she be strong when she was crumbling with every second? Her source was unidentifiable, but it helped her. After Taka was sedated, they started cleaning him up, and tried to identify problems, and hopefully fix them.

"Kai…Call Kaya. Tell her to come back as soon as possible." She had to find a way to let Kai's eyes rest from the sight of his brother lying down on a white bed as his blood stained the sheets. She took her phone out, and dialed his number.

After the surgery, Taka was moved into a room of his own, there, San and Kai were allowed to wait at his bedside. Shinji never came back that night. Kai's eyes were layered with white bandages that wrapped around his head. He slept soundly, while Kai sat in a chair near the window, and San sat in a chair right next to his bedside. She set her head next to his hand, and went to sleep. A couple hours later, she woke up with a blanket around her she looked up at Kai, but he was gone.

"Did I wake you?" He asked. His voice sounded so comforting. She turned around to see both Kaya and Ashitaka. She shook her head and took the blanket off.

"When did you guys get here?" As she stood up, she didn't realize she was holding his hand while she was sleeping.

"Just now." He replied for both of them.

"How is he doing?" Kaya asked worriedly as she stepped closer.

"The doctors said he'll be fine, but his eyes are ruined, and because of severe damage, he's gone blind." Ashitaka folded his arms because of his news. San looked back at her brother, and smiled. 'At least he's alive.'

"You look exhausted." Ashitaka read her face.

"Just a little tired" she wiped her eyes.

"You should go home, come on, I'll take you there. Kaya, will you stay here?" He took her hand.

"Yes, I'd be glad to." She nodded as she took San's seat.

"W-wait a second…" San didn't know what to do first – tell him she didn't want to go home, or that he was holding her hand.

"Let's go." He pulled her out as Kaya waved good-bye.

Outside the hospital, San pulled back to stop him.

"Hold on! What are you doing! I have to be near him when he wakes up!" She tried going back.

"You're tired, and you need rest." Ashitaka warned.

"I can sleep in the room." She persisted.

"You need a bed." He studied the bags under her eyes. "If you push yourself too hard you could end up fainting from exhaustion and end up not being there when he wakes up anyways." He took her hand again to pull her along.

"I'm not a child!" She pulled back again. "Stop treating me like I'm inferior- I want to be by his side!" She demanded. She thought Ashitaka was being selfish for this. He stared at her with his dark orbs, and sighed. She froze up, like she always did, but this time instead of a stare down, he pulled her and tugged her into his arms. She was stunned, and stayed frozen.

"I haven't seen you in a long time, San." She gently pressed his cheek against her head. "I know you care about your brother, but Kai, Kaya, and I also care about him too. And I…I care about you too…" His hand cradled the back of her head while the other hooked around her back. "Just rest for a little…Then we can go back together in the morning." He slowly let go. She was still a little shocked from his touch, but her hand never moved, and she let him lead her home. She snuggled in her bed, and stared into the dark. She tried closing her eyes, but every time she tried sleeping, her eyes stung as she remembered the pain her brother was in. Then she remembered the boy, and how he looked so sad…and familiar. Where? Where has she seen him before? She didn't know his name…but he seemed like she knew him from somewhere before.

She couldn't sleep with all this in her head. She then thought of what Ashitaka told her. Finally, after much debate, she crawled out of her bed and made her way to his bedroom and walked in. He sat up and turned a light on.

"San? What's wrong?" He asked as she stood in the doorway with her pillow. She looked away and shuffled her weight.

"I…can't…sleep that well…" She hid her face behind her pillow because of her stubbornness. He lifted his covers and moved over. After she climbed in, he turned the light off, and went back to sleep. "Ashitaka?" She asked still awake.

"Hmm?" He mumbled.

"The boy that hurt Taka…I think I know him from somewhere." She faced the opposite direction of where he was facing.

"That right?" He softly replied.

"Yeah…but I don't know where…"

"I'm sure it'll come…go to sleep." San obeyed and tried sleeping again. This time, she tried picturing the boy again, and this time, she knew where he knew him.

A/n : dun dun duuuunnn….. ! Haha...Sorry, my eyes were beginning to strain so i had to end it somewhere. So I thought "hey! Why not here?" I know, u hate me for ending it, but hey, all good things must end. Sorry if the chapter is mediocre- it's late at night and I need a shower. I was afraid that if I went into the shower I'd lose my thoughts. So I had to type like no tomorrow. Hah. Sooo…to be continued – stay tuned. Love you guys.