Author's Note: Hello everyone. So I got around to writing chapter 2! Thank you everyone who commented, favorited, and followed my story. I hope I'll continue to please everyone who reads my fanfic. Please don't forget to review and criticize my work! I won't be offended at all. I actually want feedback to improve my writing and what not. Anyways I hope everyone enjoys the chapter!

Chapter 2:Turmoil Between Mother and Daughter

Death was a weird phenomenon. While Hannah knew that was the fate that everyone shared, it never really hit her that it could happen to someone she knew. Urameshi Yusuke; the knuckle head that Kuwabara had always been obsessed with fighting, the same pervert who groped at Keiko's boobs, the number one delinquent and fighter in Sarayashiki High and he entire city. He was a funny guy, an asshole most of the time, but nonetheless someone that was close to her friends. He'd only acknowledge her when she was around Keiko or Kuwabara and often agreed Kuwabara was an idiot. Knowing she won't ever see a face she'd become so familiar with rubbed her the wrong way.

That was enough reason to cry at his funeral right?

"And when you're breathing in a life

With all your hopes and future ahead

We tend to forget that death is near

Walking side by side us

And when you dream and have so much ahead

He'll sink his scythe into your soul

And have the sweetest vengeance," she found the tune leave her one early morning when she couldn't go to sleep. She tossed and turned a couple of times until she got fed up and threw the covers over the edge of the bed. A month had passed since the incident. While she was relatively the same in school, Urameshi's death had opened her eyes to reality.

Life could end at any moment.

She shook head, trying to brush off such dark thoughts out of her head and looked over at the board to see what she'd missed while spacing out. "My graaaaades. Oi oi."

"Were you that close to Urameshi?"

Hannah blinked over at Mari who pulled a seat over to her desk and handed her the extra bento she'd made.

"You don't have to feed me you know. 'Kasan is just feeling under the weather," Hannah answered despite taking the bento box, secretly grateful for Mari's kindness.

"After I saw what you tried making the other day, I think I rather just make your food."

"Hey nato beans and American peanut butter was an experiment."

"Eeewww Hannah, just eat quietly."

"Itadakimasu!" in moments Hannah had managed to swallow half the bento.

"Did you hear? Minamino-kun was called out because his mother fell ill again."

"Poor Shuichi-kun!"

Hannah's ears twitched. Someone was excused from school because of an ill parent? She remembered Urameshi's unexpected death and she found it hard to swallow the huge wad of rice she'd stuffed in her mouth. Death wasn't kind; she wondered how long that woman had before Death would reap her soul and burn another hole in someone's heart.

"Who're they talking about?" Hannah asked after downing more than half her water bottle. News spread fast in her school.

Mari managed an awkward glance at her forgetful friend, "The popular guy with red hair."

"Oh right of course," how could she forget the guy half the school thought she was weirdly obsessed with. How that rumor developed Hannah still had no idea. Her hair was burgundy anyways. Pft. Pft. Idiots. The whole lot of them.

"Hannah? What's with the scary face?" Mari hesitated to ask at the random death glare thrown in her direction.

"Huh? I'm not making any faces."

"Sure you're not. Look," Mari lifted up her mini mirror for Hannah to show her the deep scowl engraved into features.

"Bullshit," Hannah threw one of the pieces of chicken at the dark reflection of herself and pretended nothing was wrong. "I'm as happy and carefree as can be~"

"Kowaiii…." Mari muttered under her breath as felt the dark mood around her friend.

"You know what's scary?" Hannah spoke with the food the half chewed in her mouth, her chopsticks pointed accusingly at Mari, "Idiots. They're everywhere. The world is going to fall apart with so many around!"

"Huh?" Her friend gave a confused smile, unaware of what was going through Hannah's head, "Please don't stab me with those chopsticks."

Hannah snickered and clicked them together before going back to eating quietly.

The sun was beginning to set when Hannah gave a big wide yawn once she stepped out of the train and into the station that was two blocks away from her home. She stretched both arms out, straightened her red school skirt and pulled out her CD player and headphones. The day had held no surprises; no thugs following after her, no sleazy remarks about her appearance (the rumor had died quickly once she verbally abused one of those dimwitted girls), no unexpected quizzes, her grades handed back to her had been good ones, lunch with Mari, and so forth.

"Life still goes on despite death, huh?" She spoke to herself, another bad habit of hers that she had yet to overcome with the spontaneous verse singing. Hannah shook her head furiously and held up a fist, "God damn it Hannah! Pull yourself together!"

The random girl passing by her yelped at the sudden outburst, "I'm not Hannah!"

"Alright it's Friday night! Perfect! You know what that means?" Hannah continued to purposely freak out girl. It wasn't like she'd ever see the stranger again. Who cared if one human being thought she was bat-shit crazy, "Hope 'kasan's up for karaoke tonight!"

As she jolted into a run toward her house, she remained unaware that three pairs of eyes watched her from just around the corner.

A sophomore student dressed in a Sarayashiki High uniform gave a smirk in the direction the girl had run off in. he worked a couple of nasty piercings and half shaved hair due. His tall built combined with his broad shoulders only made him more intimidating for pedestrians and any other normal person who wasn't used to being around delinquents.

"Ogawa, that's Kuwabara's girlfriend?" one of his followers stared after her. This one had his hair died a bright yellow and a tattoo peeking out from under the collar of his shirt.

"She's just as loud and stupid as him," The third remarked with his arms folded lazily behind his head, an expression of utter disinterested on his face.

The one with the tattoo cut it again, "Should we kidnap her now?"

"Don't rush thing Kato. Soon we'll have Kuwabara liking our shoes," Ogawa, the leader of the trio, answered passively.

"Once he's out of the way we'll be the ones in charge around here."

"Really, I can't believe you dragged me all the way to Shibuya just to sing a couple of songs!" Hannah's mother complained as she got a microphone shoved into her face by her daughter, "Why don't you go out with your friends for this kind of stuff?"

Both Hannah and her mother sat inside a karaoke room of Hannah's favorite restaurant. The room held a red round couch and a table that faced a television and karaoke machine. The room was small but had enough leg room to move around in.

"Because, Kuwabara's singing makes my ears bleed. And Keiko's still depressed about Urameshi," she answered between spoonfuls of the ice-cream she'd ordered; the cold snack sure to ruin her singing voice, but hell, who took karaoke seriously?

"Haven't you made any new friend at your new school?" her mother wiped her forehead. Her face had gotten paler in the past few weeks, and her health was beginning to be questionable for even Hannah.

"Let's not talk about school. Besides all you do is work and stay at home. Look at you, you've lost to much weight. Eat something," Hannah offered the woman one of the snacks she'd ordered for herself only to have them rejected.

"I haven't had much of an appetite recently."

Hannah sighed and placed the plate back on the table, "You're impossible sometimes."

"Oh be quiet Hannah don't act as if you're the mother around here."

Hannah made a random kissy face and smacked her cheeks while she was at it, "Someone has to take care of you."

"I think we all know who the adult is here."

"A really immature adult."

"Hannah!"

"'Hakuna matata' was it? from that Disney movie with the lions. I'll sing that! Ah 'kasan! I want to go to Disneyland during our next school break."

"Go with your friends, I don't have time for Disney."

"Gosh most parents would love having such a loving daughter. You're so terrible."

Her mother's features softened when she watched Hannah fold her arms and pout, "I didn't mean it like that Hana-ko. Sweetie I won't always be around. You need to be with other people. Its good you're still close to Kuwabara , but you can't shut the rest of the world out."

"Well you're around right now. I'm not shutting anyone out. There's Keiko, and Mari too. She's alright-and Kuwabara's gang and I do talk to people. I just don't like them."

"How many of your friends aren't initially Kuwabara's? Now imagine if you got into a fight with him. Whose side would those people pick?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Let's sing something."

"We're going to continue this conversation sooner or later," The older woman gave a little sigh and left it at that, "Let's sing Tsugaru kaikyo Fuyugeshiki together."

Hannah lit up instantly and she jumped to her feet so she could grab the spare microphone. The rest of that moment went by in slow motion for Hannah. As she turned back to give her mother one of those obnoxious goofy faces of hers, she watched as her mother's face drained color. The woman's hand made it to her chest before falling over on the couch.

"Okasan…?" Hannah hesitated. She remembered death ringing on Kuwabara's house phone, Urameshi's funeral, her friends' depression. When her mother didn't answer, a cold chill ran down Hannah's side and somehow she slowly paced over to the woman. "'Kasan. This isn't funny wake up."

Why was her voice so shaky? What was she so afraid of? Her mother was fine.

She had to be fine.

Hannah sat in the waiting room of the hospital with her head between her legs. Her arms were wrapped over her head and she was about ready to vomit all over the floor. All she could think of was how she was going to be sitting in an empty house with her mother in a coffin. No one from their family would come. As far as Hannah knew they weren't part of the Taniyama household anymore. Not after her mother ran off with her father.

Kuwabara and his family would pay a visit, Keiko too. She hadn't known Mari for too long but the school girl would probably attend if she saw Hannah in tears.

"Taniyama Hannah?"

She glanced up and found the doctor in charge of her mother. In a split second she was on her feet, "Is she alright? What's wrong with 'Kasan?!"

The doctor made a face, one that held a mixture of surprise and dread, "…She hasn't told you already?"

It was Hannah's turn to make a face, her heart beginning to sink, "Tell me what?'

It took a moment for the doctor to find the right words to break the news to the girl. Truth be told there was no 'right' words at all. Quietly, with the outmost regret, he told Hannah the condition her mother had been hiding.

"Your mother has cancer."

Hannah sat down-or more like collapsed back into the seat she was previously in.

"What?"

Their conversation in the karaoke place suddenly made more sense. 'Because she wasn't always going to be around huh?' her mother was aware of her own condition long before that day. An overwhelming feeling of betrayal weighed down her heart. Why hadn't her mother told her sooner?

The whispers at school were once more about Hannah, but this time it wasn't about her hair color, it was about her mother. Everyone could see the effect of her mother's condition in Hannah's character. Her weirdness had been replaced by a silent girl that tried to find any excuse to run out of class.

"You okay Hannah?" Mari asked her friend when she noticed her space out. The returned papers she'd spotted on Hannah's desk were marked with failing grades. Her notebook had not a single note from the board written on it.

"Huh? Yeah why wouldn't I be?" Hannah answered back abruptly while she got to her feet and began shoving her things into her book bag. The time was a quarter past four, which meant she could visit her mother at the hospital, "I'll see you tomorrow Mari-chan." With that said she threw her bag over her shoulder and made her way to the hospital her mother had been admitted at.

It was half past midnight when Hannah stepped out for a breath of air. The hospital was unsettlingly quiet. The florescent lights lit up the green tiled hallways made the place seem creepier than it should for Hannah. Without a sound except for the tapping of her footsteps, the young girl made her way around to the vending machine she had passed earlier the same day.

As she approached a familiar face broke her out of her depressing trance.

"Minamino-san?"

A young man with long red hair dressed in the same school uniform as hers(male version of course), bent down to grab the water bottle that had dropped to the compartment. His emerald green eyes fell on her as he stood up straight; his height reaching at least 180 cm. Facing him up close, even Hannah understood why he was considered so popular amongst the girls.

He gave her an unexpected glance, surprised to find someone else from his school at the hospital so late into the night, "Yes. And you're Taniyama Hannah."

Hannah raised a brow. So he knew her name. Of course he would, he was after all a part of the student body of their school. The rumors must've reached him, "So you've heard of me," she walked over to him and pulled out enough yen for a water bottle, "For the record my choice of hair color had nothing to do with impressing you." Her gaze remained on the change in her hand and only shifted to the vending machine as she choice her drink.

Minamino gave her an awkward smile to her comment about their hair. He didn't exactly believe the rumor when he'd heard it but then again he never paid too much attention to the girls in school, "Right…I heard about your mother as well." he paused for a moment and then gave her a friendly smile, the best one he could manage while knowing his mother was dying only a few doors down, "Let's hope we both get through this in one piece."

She couldn't even bother smiling. She wondered how long he had been keeping that face with other people, but kept it to herself. She didn't know the details of his mother's illness but she could only selfishly think of her own mother and how she had cancer. As far as she knew there was no real cure for her disease. It was a matter of time before death took his next victim. It took all her strength not to tear up in front of the redhead.

"A little over a month ago an acquaintance of mine died," she answered back to his statement, her hand remained on the cap of her bottled water, her gaze was to the floor before she shook off what she was about to say, "…it sucks that we all have to die at some point. Anyways I hope your mother will be okay as well." she gave him a wave of the hand before walking back to her mother's room, "See you."

Sorry the chapter felt a bit slow but chapter three we'll have more of the canon characters introduced and the story will pick up! let me know what you thought about the chapter in a review! I swear it motivates me! See you all later~ ^w^