Chapter 7

The Torn Sakura

"Mumu-kun?" Rei woke up in the middle of the night to the splashing of water in the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Rei asked once again as Mukuro exited the room with droplets of water still dropping from his saturated hair. Rei quickly followed behind, grabbing his wrist, and facing his bony back. Small sweat circles were barely visible; yet enough proof that Mukuro hadn't been sleeping well.

"What's wrong?" Rei probed, using her other hand to poke Mukuro's back playfully, but the man stood still for a while, then, finally, turned around with an obvious fake grin.

"Nothing, Rei-chan. Maybe just hungry. My stomach's flipping."

"…"

"And tugs at my heart, kufufu, I'm so weird." Mukuro looked away from Rei's eyes, shook off her wrist, and walked zombie-like to the refrigerator.

"Mumu…"

"Go sleep."

"But…."

"Or else I won't share any pineapples with you."

"Fine, but, be careful, Mumu-kun."

Rei turned silently around, her curly hair swaying behind her sloppily.

m-

As Rei left, it was like Mukuro's burden decreased by a few hundred. But that tumbling and weird feeling in his heart didn't leave. With a forced laugh, he swung open the refrigerator, got a few slices of frozen pineapples, and returned to his normal spot on the couch.

He closed his eyes for better focus, but he found himself always thinking about the same issue again. Rei-chan, Yumi. Yumi.

Would it be good bringing such an innocent girl into his world full of battles?

And Rei—having something he didn't even know the name for. The urge to take care of her, and yet, sometimes that irritated feeling. And yesterday, leaving Yumi behind to call Rei, when he returned to the place earlier in the park, Yumi had already disappeared.

Gulping down the pineapples, he left out a great exclaim of satisfaction, and swung his head a few times around to get his mind clear, then, of course, not forgetting to fix his hair afterwards.

He'd deal with everything by sunrise, and he needed his "beauty" sleep. Letting his mind shut down, he closed his eyes and fell into his dream world.

r-

She slowly opened her eyes, hearing the clashing of dishes in the kitchen.

"Shizzle." She muttered as she quickly got dressed and hurried into the kitchen.

There Mukuro was, slamming pots together as if to make something called "breakfast" which consisted of shatters of metal pans, a few uncooked pieces of rice, and a porcelain plate that was on the verge of snapping open.

"Mumu-kun?"

The man turned around with a grin on his face, but his eyebrows conveyed a totally different message.

"I'll make breakfast today…" He continued smashing the pans together.

"Mumu! We'll go out to eat, that snack-shack, yeah?" Not like Reika wanted Mukuro to see Yumi again. But perhaps she may be the only one that could help Mukuro that was so deep in thought.

With a blank face, Mukuro turned around, and gave a sly grin. "Okay. Kufufu, pineapples." With that, the two left the house.

It wasn't a bright day like normal, the sun, as if suddenly shy, was hiding behind the clouds, only peeking his eye out. Small breezes carried the Sakura flowers in midair, slowly drifting past house over house, and those smiles that had been both Mukuro—and Reika's dream even since they were young. As the Sakura flowers past Reika, she grabbed a petal and slowed down her footsteps.

"You know what these are?" She smiled, pinching the flower petals closer to breaking.

"Sakura flowers…." Mukuro whispered. Sakura. Hibari. Why did all this have to come back to him?

But what could be done now?

He was gone.

Forever.

And nothing would ever bring him back. All Mukuro could do was—to forget about Hibari as he said, and find someone just as great as him. As if that would ever happen.

"Mumu-kun?" Reika glanced into Mukuro's eyes, seriously.

Mukuro closed his eyes and hummed a laugh. 'Continue walking like normal' He told himself.

"I'm sorry, Mumu-kun…" Reika sighed, opened her fingers that had been pinching onto the petal so that the juice within stained her fingers, and let the wounded petal fly back into the sky.

"We're all like that, Mumu-kun, like those petals."

"…"

"We're always flying, flying, flying around to search for a place to finally let ourselves rest and settle down. And we might get hurt, pinched so hard that it seems our souls are going to break out of our body. But what could we do? We just fly back into the wind and continue."

"Rei-chan?" Mukuro muttered, and was going to say something until he spot the small snack shack in the middle of the street.

Reika's face seemed to darken, but her smile remained.

"Don't worry about me anymore, you can go—talk to her." Reika seemed to light up, and started shoving Mukuro towards the shack.

"Oya oya. I will go on my own. Pineapple snacks…I'll get you one if you want."

"Kohoho, thank you then…and see you."

m-

Mukuro smiled as Reika walked off, and quickened his pace towards the small snack shack.

Yumi.

Yumi.

Right.

Yumi.

"Yumi?"

"Ara, who do we have here?"

An elderly woman sat in the snack shack, chewing on some gummies that seemed to be overdue. In her hands, she held a crumpled newspaper, and seemed to be reading it.

"Oya. I'm looking for Yumi."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Mukuro. Mukuro Rokudo."

The old woman sighed, and looked into Mukuro's eyes, not afraid like any normal person would be. She held her newspaper up, and quickly smashed it on Mukuro's head.

"Oi!" Mukuro muttered, rubbing his head. The old woman grinned.

"Now it's even. Yumi—she's sick. Yesterday, she waited for you in the park for four hours. But you went with that girl and never came back."

"Sick? And I did go back to check…"

"Souka?" The old lady grinned, "Then perhaps, my granddaughter got lost herself in the park."

Yumi was sick—waiting for him. And after one quick glance, he had left thinking that she didn't wait. But she did…for four hours. What had he been doing in those four hours? Buying pineapples,

trying to get Reika happy again? While he was doing all that… this girl had been outside, waiting for him.

"Where's your house?"

The old lady chuckled, and walked out of her shack.

"Follow me."

Even though this was a creepy old lady, even though she might not be able to be trusted…he had to see Yumi. He had to.

r-

Reika had walked back silently, her heart throbbing as she heard Mukuro's voice, and turned back to see him walking away from the path leading to Kokuyo High School.

Souka. He left her alone.

Reika sighed, but clenched her fists together and threw it up in the air.

"It's okay! Mukuro may like Yumi, but SO. WHAT! Without boys…my life was good too…" As if contemplating, Reika let her arm fall to the natural movement, and it swung back and forth a few times.

"What are you doing here, bya!"

"It's getting cold…"

The blond and glasses boy appeared in front of her, their hands on their hips.

"You're looking for another fight? I'm not in the mood." Reika muttered, walking past them apathetically.

"No, Reika, we bought some pineapple bentous, let's go eat it." Chikusa lifted his glasses a little, and let it fall back onto his nose. His other hand gripped his yoyo, as if nervous, rubbed his hand back and forth against it.

"Arigato." Reika grinned as she let the two lead her back into the building, and began to eat.

"Oishi!" Reika gasped happily, intoxicated in the moment. But something was missing.

Something didn't feel right.

Mukuro wasn't there.

Author's note:

Hmm, next chapter I should be writing about Yumi's story, so readers get a better idea of Yumi. Yepp, need to start the hard work so I can finish another chapter by Friday! Thnx for everyone's support!