Chapter 34

THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER! *cries*

I APOLOGISE FOR THE SPELLING MISTAKES IN ADVANCE FOR THIS CHAP

well it's not even a chapter really.

It wasn't the last chapter 33, cos that would just be mean to not let you see what happened with the other other curse.

Twist ahead and goodbye...

UNTIL THE EPILOUGE!

Several days had passed since the attempt to break the Shinozaki bloodline's curse, and destroying Heavenly Host. Both were succesful, but had varying degrees in that. Yoshiki and Ayumi had woken up to them lying in rubble, sirens wailing around them, hurting their tender ears. It turned out after the explosion, Yoshiki's flat had been set on fire and almost everything was destroyed, apart from the couch which was mostly still in tact. It had also wrecked the flat above, below and either side from it, and the people living their were extremely annoyed, however when they saw the extent to him as his girlfriends injuries (Yoshiki broke his arm and Ayumi inflamed lungs) they all decided to ease it off a little.

After several fire fighters hosed down the blaze, they managed to find them both, holding hands in the rubble and shipped them off in the same ambulance straight away, since they seemed inseparable. They stayed alone in hospital for only a day, before they had four visitors; Satoshi, Naomi, Hinoe, and surprisingly, Yoshiki's younger sister, Miki. Her visit had been brief though, but Yoshiki didn't mind that much since he had so much to talk about with his other friends. Hinoe had explained what had happened, and Ayumi blamed herself more then anything for what happened with Tsukasa.

"I should of been there..." she moaned as everyone was gathered around her bed. "It was my fault, i could of helped, but instead I was selfish."

"Don't be ridiculous," Yoshiki told her, gently stroking her hair. "It was for the best."

Hinoe had explained about Tsukasa and Ai's disagreement, and how Ai had packed her bags and left, mumbling about visiting a strange country, and had entrusted her daughter to Hinoe who didn't even refuse. Hinoe thought she was selfish and inconsiderate, but in reality Ai just wanted to forget her life and move on, to a life without spirits and that kind of thing. Ume would just be a constant reminder of her mistakes, and especially now, of Tsukasa. Plus, there was someone she needed to find, someone she thought she had left behind a long time ago...

After Tsukasa sacrificed himself, Ume didn't stop crying, and for days she wouldn't talk, move or eat until Hinoe took her on her second visit to see Ayumi in hospital. Although traumatised, she was happy to see the young woman that she admired greatly, and of course Yoshiki, who seemed to be warming up to the little girl more then when they had met in the park. She got on well with Hinoe and her parents, but desperately wanted to live with Ayumi, even though they didn't really know each other that well. Instead of saying how she felt, Ume spent the rest of the time drawing endless pictures of her and Tsukasa, adding a zoomed in picture of her mother with a big, thick, red cross scrawled across it quite plainly showing she didn't care for her mother anymore. Despite her age, she had turned dramatically mature in just a few days, looking after herself when Hinoe was busy and reading school books, since Hinoe decided it was best for her to recover a bit until she was ready to go to school. As for her baby sister*, she went to live with Ume's grandparents on the other side of the country, when Ai had been super busy with work and could not look after both her children, even with Tsukasa's help along the side.

Naomi and Satoshi had just gotten back to school, trying to forget about the whole incident, but both of them knew that they would never forget it, even if everyone else who were not involved had completely forgotten it. Naomi was decidedly happy, living with her knowledge-of-Seikos-existence-improved* mother, however she realised thats she hadn't recieved a reply from Seiko at all since her last aeroplane. But the truth hit her; of course now that Heavenly Host had been destroyed, Seiko would be unable to send her short but sweet messages, since in almost everybody's mind, the space had never even existed in the first place. Although deeply saddened by this, she knew that in her heart, it was for the best, and most of all it would be what Seiko would of wanted. That was what she was trying to say in her notes, however at the time they weren't descriptive enough to help her before Tsukasa told them the plan.

Ayumi lay in her hospital bed, staring up at the cream ceiling with Yoshiki beside her. Even though he had been discharged a few days before her, he hadn't left her side once, although she demanded he should leave her. Yoshiki had insisted to stay, partly because he actually had no where to go now that his flat was all messed up, and the building work was going to take absouloutely ages. On the other hand, Satoshi had invited him to camp out at his for a couple of weeks whilst he was making living arrangements with Ayumi, who was decidedly going to stay in her parents house. They weren't entirely sure what to do next, but Ayumi had learnt to live the moment, so hadn't made a fuss like she would usually do in a situation like this.

"Ayumi, i'm gonna go round to Satoshi's. Thank god I had some stuff at his house already!"

Yoshiki had told her after a long silence of them both just thinking.

"That's fine, of course." she replied, tugging the visitors band off his wrist. "I'll be...right here."

"Thanks," he grinned, kissing her lightly on her forehead. Various tubes stuck in and out of her, since her lungs weren't propably working after she had hyperventilated and had immense smoke inhalation, which didn't help at all in her case. "See ya later..."

Ayumi sighed as he left the room, realising how lonely it was to be in hospital all by herself, especially without Yoshiki, who always cared for her no matter what. Satoshi must of felt awful back when he had passed out, all alone in his little room...Ayumi shook her head violently. She should know by now never to dwell on the past. Suddenly, a pretty blonde nurse entered the room with a cork clipboard in her hands, smiling warmly at Ayumi.

"You're very popular today, miss," she commented. "You have another visitor; and since she's not close or a family member, aI have to ask for your permission."

"Um, sure," she said with a shrug. Who had come now? "Send them in."

The nurse disappeared momentairly and reappaered with a young woman in tow, with ginger hair and cool purple eyes.

"You have 20 minutes, i'm afraid," the nurse quickly mentioned before she left. "It's almost the end of visiting times."

"Thanks."

Ai perched on the edge of the chair next to the bed, not wanting to look Ayumi directly in the eyes.

"I presume you knew what happened," she murmered, staring at the floor. "The other day."

"Yes." Ayumi replied quietly. "You actually considered sacrificing your own daughter?"

"It wasn't like that!" Ai argued. "I couldn't of done any thing else, Tsukasa-"

"Tsukasa did what you would never do in a million years. He gave up his own life, his own energy to destory Heavenly Host."

"..."

An awkward silence settled between the two, making Ayumi feel even more infuriated, and Ai even more bored and confused.

"Why did you even come Ai?"

"Theres one last thing I have to clear up with you Shinozaki, before I start my new life." she explained, now turning to finally face her.

"Make it quick." Ayumi replied inbetween coughs.

"Well, the first Shinozaki explained to you the origins of the gifted, didn't she?"

"Yes, wait how do you-"

"Good. Then you will understand what i'm about to say. You may have broken the curse, but only on yourself."

"...What?!"

"You have only broken the curse of yourself."

"I heard you...but, how?"

"Its explainitry if you just go over the whole story again. I'm not going to elaberate."

"What am I supposed to do?" she whispered, clutching the side of her bed. "If I have a daughter..."

"She'll have to do the same as you have done, with her respected partner of course, between the ages of 16-25. It's fate."

"How do you know this?"

Ai's face darkened, clearly showing she was adement to telling Ayumi anything, so she closed her mouth.

"But she won't...get the 'key' unless she knows the story, and the first Shinozaki can only be awakened ever centurary or so. You'll have to pass it down."

"Right..."

"Listen Ayumi," Ai spoke, looking at her with narrowed eyes. "I know it's a big burden to put on you, but it's just..."

"Fate. Yeah I get it."

"Your not going to freak out then?" Ai asked, confused.

"Why would I? If i was capable of breaking my own curse, all the generations that come after me will be able to do it too!"

"...If thats your way of seeing things."

Ai looked like she was about to get up and leave, but Ayumi found herself tugging her back down onto the chair.

"What will you do now? You can't just forget all your memories like you say so."

"Ayumi, child," she said, looking down at her wearily. "You have yet to come so far in this world. There are many things you don't know, like the fact that Azusa is in fact my cousin."

"Huh?"

"Well actually, you know that now, but it's a long story. One i'll forget one day."

"It's sad ya know..." Ayumi told her with a wistful smile. "You leave your children behind."

"I've done it before." Ai shrugged tiredly. Without even saying goodbye, Ai strided out of the room her head held high, but Ayumi's look after her was not one of admiration.

"Sometimes..." Ayumi mumbled to herself, putting her hands in the air. "Life isn't fair...but that's just an exsuse to be sad. Every minute of sadness is one of happiness you can never, ever get back...That's why from today, i'm not going care what people think about me. I'm going to live life, but, this time, my way."

*Ack I kind of forgot about her. Whoopsie!

*Great Huh?

Thanks for reading, until the last chapter in a couple of days

Poffor xoxox