My brother's large hand was still being warmed in my own, my body not letting him become cold and… I couldn't even think of the word. Not now, not ever. I felt my smaller hand lose in the fight, the coldness of death beginning to creep around my hands and fingers, trickling through them like dissolving emotions always forgotten to express.
The flat line that seemed constant on the small monitor screen beeped loudly, giving a shrill cry, trying to bring me back down to earth, to realization, something I refused to experience inside. Not planning on giving up just yet, I gripped his hand tighter. He limp fingers didn't grip back. They didn't hold me in this time of fear, this time of worry turning into a broken emotion; they didn't protect me any longer like they always did my guardian angel. I bent my head down as I felt shamed, like I had failed someone. But what could I do? All I could've done was sit there and wait, but even still, I felt like I should've done something more to help him.
Refusing to let go of the past, I held onto his hand tighter, as if trying to keep him on earth, trying to hold his hand as he tried to pull away, to go away from my life. But I knew that he was long gone. It was no use. The flickering lights above stopped in a dramatic pause, as if it were in shock and sorrow as well. "I said I'd run a thousand miles if I had to," I whispered, my voice unsteady, cracking in the middle of my sentence. My words came in a whimper, and that one tear that clung to the side of my chin finally let go, seeming to drop in slow motion. It was as if time had frozen, and as I felt the cold drop leave its last touch on my skin, I felt the coolness fall upon the hand that gripped my dead brother's, shaking wildly in resistance. Resistance of what? I thought. Resistance of the truth.
Tears began to slide from beneath my glasses, rolling down my cheeks like I was the gloomy glass window, and the rain was pouring on top of me for once, giving me a whole new experience, a whole new understanding of how someone would feel. The tears curved at my cheeks with ease, at least two or three of them flowing down in streaks at a time. They fell quickly to my strong grip below, as if a wish had been made on them.
My head bent down, my eyes unable to fall themselves upon my brother's face or body, I felt my whole life flash before my eyes, as if I were doing it for Kenneth, the one unconscious and unable to see anything, remembering all the times we spent together, the good and the bad, the fun and the serious.
I remembered the time he protected me from the pelting rocks, a blood streak falling down the side of his pace, my face frozen in a lock of fear. I remembered myself crying as a child, curled up into a ball when father was to leave that day, Kenneth hugging me for support. I remembered feeling the warm tears of his own falling down my face, new drops of sadness to be shed. I remembered the times we laughed, becoming closer and closer with every second, every minute of our lives. Laughing at the lake, the forest, at home when mother yelled at Kenneth for doing something bad, when really he had been sticking up for me so I wouldn't feel anymore sadness. I remembered the times when I thought I was weak, and that I should improve, always being scared and afraid, no matter how smart I got, but I never improved. I always let Kenneth take the big hits for me. I always used to hide behind him like a shield. And now… now he's gone. More tears rolled down my solemn expression full of grief as I tried to prevent my face from shaking indistinctively, biting my lip so I wouldn't cry out in pain and distress that I knew I had to live with from now on. Feeling his hand grow colder by the second, I felt our bonds beginning to sever, the threads connecting us snapping in two, the two ends now distant from each other by a whole world. Memories that came in a dim orange color and black and white flashed in my mind more like a slideshow of the past.
"I promise to protect you, even when we're older, I'll do anything to stay by your side."
Kenneth had told me these words with a wide, childish smile that he always seemed to carry back then, his childish face lively and protective, and his teenage expression nonexistent and cold with the grudging, icy stare he probably hid underneath. I remembered praying at the monument, praying at home, laughing at home, crying in the forest, running through the shallow waters of the lake, and feeling the hot sun on our backs as we climbed out of the cool, muddy waters. We smiled as our feet walked unsteadily out of the rushing water, smiling with the same brightness of the sun. Those smiles were gone now. They were nonexistent.
That should be me, I thought, as I looked up as far as I could go without breaking down. That should be me, dead on that bed. I should be the one dead… for abusing someone who was willing to sacrifice everything for me. Why, brother? Why did you care so much about me? Why did you have to protect me from every single little thing?! I cried out to him in my mind, the tears becoming more abundant in my face, my expression almost drowned in the flood, the sour taste of them washing my tongue and mouth. I watched the flat line swim across the screen easily once more in hopes that it would show some sign of up or downward movement. But it never came. My wishes never came true.
Just once more… I thought, even my inner voice cracking with sadness. My fingers constricted his tighter, squeezing it so tightly for support that I was sure I was going to break his fingers. Just once more, if I could say something to you one more time… I sniffed. I'd give the whole world, just for that…You said you'd do anything to stay by my side. Anything. Does anything include coming back from another world? Does it? Doesn't it? I asked quietly in my mind, so low that even I couldn't hear it.
As my last thought was done with, my last tear dropped into the building pool of sour drops, I listened hard to the shrill cry of the monitor, my eyes hard on the floor, and too heavy to be picked up. I closed my eyes, ending my tearful cries until I heard something. Something that was differentiating the pattern of the noise that rang in my ears. I heard a pause – and then a beep.
I reopened my eyes, tear beads at the corners of my eyes, taking a sharp breath as I soon found myself out of air. It was another while until another beep was heard, and I turned to see the monitor. The flat line was still there… and another second came a short zigzag.
Could it be? I gulped down a huge knot of rising panic and hope, mixed in with anxiety. I gripped my brother's hand tighter in high hopes. I began to feel the storm of my mind begin to clear and let the sun shine once again, the clouds turning from its eerie gray to a ghostly white. More beeps came, and the time distance between each one grew shorter and shorter. Zigzags began to fill the screen instead of flat lines, and soon consumed it. As the constant beeping continued, I took a deeper breath in rising hopes that increased impossibly with each shrill beep of light. Kenneth….nii-san?
I turned to find my brother's face still unmoving and his eyes still closed, his protecting stare forever sealed. I found something bright in my way, cutting off my vision. What…? I thought.
The light was coming from where my brother and mine's hands met, A bright energy that glowed with the color of soul energy soon filling the small hospitalizing room, painting visual hope across my face and gleaming, frozen eyes of shock. We held the glowing orb of light between our hands, as if a shining star sent as a message from whoever was up there watching us. The zigzag lines became larger and larger, thicker and thicker, and the beeping became more normal.
As the light grew stronger, I felt energy drain from my body, but I didn't care; all I cared about was getting Kenneth back – in any way I could. I watched with unknowing eyes as I felt and saw Kenneth stir in his bed. He let out an exasperated moan quietly, his eyes blinking slowly and heavily once, and then reopening to let me find his friendly, glazed sky blue eyes. They filled my heart with hope, but all was not going to be the same again. He looked at me with a wondering stare as to what happened, knowing nothing of the pain I had gone through. He looked as if his expressions were frozen, and the light soon wore off. What that light was, I didn't know, but I was glad to see it. He smiled when he saw me a second later, and I smiled back. I wiped the wet streaks that began to dry away from my face with a sleeve, and pushed the tears back into my eyes as I let out a wide grin that showed my teeth, something that people haven't seen for such a long time. I don't want to let go, I thought, referring to my hand with a strong grip wrapped around my brother's.
"Like your ability?" I heard a voice behind me appear out of nowhere, scaring me half to death, something I shouldn't really be joking about with right now. I turned around with my hand still closely clasped around my brother's palm and crooked fingers, finding Shintenmaru staring hard at him with his reflecting glasses. "Just be careful with it, though. Every time you use it, the more you use to heal, the more you shorten your maximum lifespan," Shintenmaru warned.
I turned back with a closed smile, and Kenneth stared with a smile back, but also with eyes filled with wonder as to what was going on. "I said a while ago…. That I'd give my world again and again just to let my brother live, didn't I? Or were you not here for that?" I said with my back turned to Shintenmaru. I could sense a short smirk painted across his face behind me.
"Wh…What's going on?" Kenneth said with a short sigh, his voice restarting back up again to its normal state, his first words coming out in a whisper.
"Nothing," I said softly. "Nothing." A miracle, I figured. A miracle just happened. These powers are definitely the work of whatever god is up there. I thanked whoever it was, and smiled a little too wide for comfort. "Kenneth nii-san…?" I asked, my smile straightening out into a serious one.
He coughed a small, unserious cough, and asked, "What is it?" with wandering eyes, his eyes shining brightly with the hope that he always seemed to have constantly installed into him. Those were the eyes of a guardian angel, I thought.
"I don't need you to protect me anymore," I told him in a whisper, his eyes widening, and then a smile growing.
So, Shintenmaru thought in the back of the room away from the scene. This is the Minor Hyoumaru was talking about. The one who released the first seal in his first fight… even if just a little…I see.
PoVS
"Ah-ha!" Zack pointed accusingly at Derek, who became surprised immediately at the uproar as he was walking through the halls.
"What?" Derek said, his stare narrowing to an annoyed one.
"How do you explain that one?" Zack said, his finger still pointing directly at Derek, his eyes closed in proof as Madasora came nearer, his feet tired and his body out of breath, so tired that even his bird was panting tiredly at his shoulder.
"Explain what, you idiot?" Derek said calmly in his annoyed state, a comical irritated sign appearing by the side of his head.
"Explain why your clothes are so cool and mine aren't," Zack pointed out, reopening his eyes accusingly, so accusingly that he looked idiotic more than normal.
"I…I can't see your…your point," Madasora said, holding his knees with his hands, breathing hard with his eyes closed. Why did he take forever to find just one Minor? And how come he can run so fast? Madasora said, his breath slowly being regained.
"Just look!" Zack said, pointing the other hand's index finger for a double pointing effect. Derek gave a narrow, bothered look as if to threaten to break off his fingers. Derek was wearing gray, long shorts just like Zack had made of cotton, and was also wearing the Geta sandals, or the wooden sandals, which literally meant "click-clack," for the sound they made. Derek however was wearing a totally different thing for the top. He wore an old style Japanese coat in black, outlined at the sides and edges with a white lining. The coat had sleeves that went a little past his shoulders and had a white circle holding the Japanese word for "Hell" inscribed in it on the back. The coat was open, and revealed a nonexistent shirt. Derek's chest and parts of his stomach were wrapped in black bandages for two reasons exactly, one of them being so that he didn't reveal too much. On his foreleg, there was a black, thin bandanna wrapped around it, it's end sashes hanging noticeably when he walked. The dark clothes made his shoulders stand out broadly, a little more broad than Zack was. His mean stare matched with the tone of his clothes.
"Look at what? Stop complaining and get to the point," Madasora said, finally done recreating his breath, the bird still a bit exhausted resting on his shoulder.
"To start off with, why does he get to have the word 'Hell' on the back of his coat? That's really unfair, you know," Zack said with squinting eyes or arrogance.
Madasora sighed. "That's because the shadow powers originate from the source of the underworld, so as a sign of respect, both Shadow Minor and Council have to wear it," he explained, the bird twittering by his side a song of cheerfulness, trying to regain the energy it had lost. In the end, it just ended up tiring itself out.
"Okay well then, what about those bandages? I mean, I need something to cover the top part of my chest up, don't you think? This shirt's open so big that it reveals it," Zack complained once more.
Madasora gave another exasperated sigh. "That's because that's for Derek's hurt chest. His chest was broken when Jeremy and Dylan found him by one of White Cloak's people, and even though a doctor healed most of his injuries, he still has some problems operating it normally. He was lucky he passed Hibiyomi's fight without getting himself killed." The bird continued to sing happily, bouncing on one leg up and down, then switching to the other, its eyes closed and its mouth wide open with its wings spread out, grabbing bits of attention from the surrounding people.
Derek sighed at the memory in nostalgia, closing his eyes, trying to push back the memory of burning skin far, far away into the back of his mind. "Well, I still want it," Zack said, scratching the side of his head with an index finger, his expression going a bit nervous and comical.
"You want to get your chest broken?! Fine with me!" Madasora yelled humorously, the bird still dancing happily at his side. Zack immediately backed away and gave an apology with his comical nice expression. Madasora sighed in annoyance. God… really, this guy… Madasora thought as he put one arm on his waist, a sign that he was tired. The dark corridors were somehow lit up today brightly, and everything came to sight clearly and easily, the naked eye ready to detect any details you would want them to explain.
"Hey," Derek called out, his eyes looking a bit tired and weary. His words caught Zack's attention. Madasora watched wearily. "What the hell is a strip of cloth wrapped around your ring finger for? You married or something?" he scoffed.
Zack let out an expression of blank thoughts. "What?" he muttered as he lifted his right hand to see the white strip of cloth tied around the base of his middle finger, its tasseled ends long and tail-like, the Japanese word for "wind" inscribed in a darker shade of noticeably white facing the back of his hand. "What's this doing here?" Zack muttered stupidly.
"You idiot," Madasora retched comically with a tight expression on his face, ready to punch the heck out of his Minor counterpart. "The Five Base Minors have to wear them, a different one on each finger."
"Oh," Zack muttered, putting an annoyed face as he continued to look at his hand, getting irritated. "That's stupid," he pointed out bluntly.
Madasora began to yell different things indistinctively, his facial expression going wide with anger and surprise, his voice roaring off the halls. Zack apologized again with humor. Madasora sighed as soon as he finished yelling, and Derek looked away in annoyance, his stare wandering.
Really, this guy... the both of them thought, Zack still backed up against the wall, waving his hand in motion in a humorously, objective way.