Ride like the Wind
Chapter 60
The next day, everyone gathered at Yomi's house. For the first half hour they were there, they all stayed silent for about half an hour. (Though the silence made it seem like hours.)
"So, someone speak. Why are you all here?" Yomi asked, although his voice slightly laced with irritation but they still knew he meant well.
"Do you really have to ask?" Yusuke replied as he took a swig of liquor.
"Well it's probably more for your sake. I'm pretty sure it's half passed noon and you're just about intoxicated already. What kind of man gets himself drunk for the sun sets?"
"It calms my nerves. Lay off, will ya?"
"Opium is supposed to calm your nerves. Liquor is the chemical that causes insanity and breaks good families apart. You're not even close, Urameshi."
"Well if that's the truth then one of you has to be wasted twenty-four-seven seeing how everyone in this goddamn place is screwed one way or another."
"That's no business of yours. Why even bring that up if that's not why you came? Drop it."
"Please." Kuwabara added half pleading.
"How is she?" Kurama asked in a half whisper.
"Can't say. She's been unconscious this whole week. I'm not quite sue why. But I have to say that even so, she's still lucky to be in the state she's in. I don't know how she was able to go on with a shot to the stomach. I guess when you're slave you learn how to deal with pain."
"Wait, back up! What the hell are you talking about?" Yusuke asked.
"She probably wouldn't want me to tell you this but she used to be a slave from some slave auction or another. Apparently there was a group that took demons and sold them off. I don't know the true story really but she still was sold off with or without the consent of her parents. In a nutshell my family owned her," Yomi explained. "Enough about that now..."
"So what're you planning to do with her now that she's knocked out?" Hiei asked.
"I might just have to leave her at the hospital when I leave."
"Leave? What the hell's wrong with staying here?"
"What with this being done... There's too much to remember here. I'll just go back to Scotland. Maybe go to Japan. I think they're trying to be like everyone here."
"Quit beating around the bush." Hiei started towards the stairs.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'll see her one more time and then I'm gone for good. If you're going through with what you just said, then let me at least say a prayer for her whether it's heard or not. And I'll hope to God that if she does wake up, she won't end up with a dumb ass like me or an asshole like you again. But maybe it's better for her to never wake up. Can't blame her for staying out." He continued up the stairs.
"It's all my fault, really..." Kurama buried his face in his hands. He hear Yomi walk towards him.
"Shuichi, look at me."
Kurama looked up and Yomi spit in his right palm and slammed it on Kurama's forehead.
"Yomi, what the hell?!" Koenma growled.
"He's a homosexual. He'll just magic it off anyway."
"Even so..."
"Maybe then it'll knock some sense into him. I'm going up. I have to find Shura's medicine. It was misplaced some time between last night and this morning."
"I thought you said stress kills a man."
"Sure. But so does not taking your medicine."
Shura came down the stairs with an empty plate in his hands. He stared at everybody once he reached the bottom of the stairs for a while and continued going to the kitchen.
"Shura, come here," Koenma beckoned for him to come. When he stopped and stared at the priest, he beckoned again, "Come here."
"I don't want to. I'm going to eat again and then I'll go to sleep for the rest of the day. Screw the school if they don't like me skipping on studying for that test I'll have when I come back."
"Mitarai told me you didn't have to study."
"No. I can't not study anymore. After all this I started drawing a blank. I think Mao's taking my memory again. I think I made the same mistake when I was blonde."
"Don't talk like that. There's no Mao."
"Don't say that! He'll be mad."
"Where is he?"
"I think... I think he's inside me now because I can't see him anymore. That or he's always behind me where I can't see him. But when I mention him you all look at me like I'm crazy when he was here bright as day. I'm not crazy."
"Say a prayer with us for your mother."
"I don't say prayers asking anything of a god that lets things like this happen to good people. You might just tell me that I'm wrong in thinking that way or that I say that just because I'm young, maybe you're right but until I learn to deal with this, I'll continue to think that way. I bet he told you everything's alright, too. It's not. She's not sleeping at all. She's living a nightmare if she's sleeping."
"Don't talk like that."
"I feel sick..." He rubbed one of his temples and grumbled a nonsensical phrase to himself and nodded as if whatever he said was the answer to everything. "But... If I were you, I wouldn't blame myself. She did everything on her own will. She risked herself. She knew she would die young anyway..."
He walked into the kitchen. As soon as Shura was out of the room, Hiei came down the stairs staring at the ground as he did. He finally looked up and walked passed everyone and left.
"It smells awfully dead in here. Kind of wet out there too..." Kuwabara mumbled. Yusuke started singing off key, jumbled quotes from the bible in a twisted tune to "Silent Night". "Would you cut that out! You're creeping me out!"
"Hey, he's wasted. He doesn't know any better," Koenma replied before throwing a book at the him.
Kurama leaned back in his chair. "When I was three years old, my mother planted a cherry tree behind our house for my father because he loved cherries and the blossoms. Back in Japan, samurai compare themselves to cherry blossoms. Just to see how they fall to the ground in peace so boldly and gracefully like a warrior in battle. When I was five, I climb that tree and fell... I broke my leg but I felt no real pain. I was in ecstasy just laying there in those fallen blossoms. I didn't know how long I was there but... Maybe it's time we all just fall like those cherry blossoms and lay there in all our escaping pain... And then hold this one in our closed hand and let it go in the wind. Maybe it's time we let go. And in our dreams... All of our pain sinks into nothing. Without life... Without time... Without everything..."
"Shuichi?" He saw Maya and Sakyou enter in the corner of his eye.
"We wanted to see how Mrs. Cromwell was doing. But who knew that she would turn out to be Peter Eikenberry?" Sakyou's last statement said slightly sarcastically. "Let's not go into that though. Care to introduce me to these fine gentleman here?"
"I'm leaving. Take me back when something happens," Yusuke walked out.
"You know... Since Raizen died, he hasn't been the same," Kuwabara said more to himself. "Now that I think about it, he was like that when he went home. I wonder if something happened with his mom or something..."
"Well, I'm Sakyou and this fair maiden is Maya. Let's just leave it at that since introductions seem to be too much to ask at the moment. It's a pity that everything had to turn out this way. Even if Mrs. Cromwell is getting old. It's still terrible. It's enough to make even a demon feel tears in his eyes." He paused. "I didn't mean to intrude. Or rather, we didn't mean to intrude. But Maya is quite fond of Mrs. Cromwell and I'd quite fond of the doctor."
"I'm sure. Everybody has to I guess. Even if he does look odd to everyone around here, you have to. He's a likable guy really. Most of the time. He does have times..."
Kurama started coughing and when he looked at his palm her saw blood. Maya noticed this and gasped somewhat melodramatically. He leaned back and closed his eyes.
Calling... Calling... Nothing. I never noticed but I haven't heard anything from Youko in a while. He usually has something to say. But he hasn't... I never thought about it but I haven't transformed either. Why...?
"Shuichi, you're not well..." Maya whispered to him.
He got up. "No, I'm not. Not in the least bit. I'm going home tomorrow."
"But you just got here."
"But for what reason?" He walked out.
On his way back to Maya and Kaitou's house, Shura started following him, probably after finally achieving his seemingly unreachable goal of getting lost.
"You know... In The Juniper Tree a wife wanted a child and gave birth to a son and died giving birth. So then the father married another woman who gave birth to a daughter and was jealous of the son. So she had him reach into a chest and slammed it on him, cutting off his head. Then the stepmother made her daughter believe she killed her half-brother. Then the stepmother makes the son into black pudding which the father eats and the daughter buries the bones under the tree. A bird flies from that tree and gets a golden chain from goldsmith and red shoes from a shoemaker. The bird gives the chain to the father after a first song and the shoes to the daughter after a second song and when the bird sings again and drops a millstone on the stepmother, killing her. The bird transforms into the son and the other tree go inside. If you've heard The Rose-Tree then you already heard this one," Shura half-whispered.
"What's your point?" Kurama asked.
"I dunno. I just liked that one. But you know... In Mary's Child the woodcutter and his wife have a daughter they couldn't feed so the Virgin Mary took her to Heaven where the daughter lived happily. When the Virgin had to leave and left the daughter the key to thirteen doors (The thirteenth she wasn't supposed to open.) and behind the twelve doors she found the twelve Apostles. Behind the thirteenth door she found a trinity and had her finger stained with gold. She tried to hide it and lied three times about it so the Virgin Mary punished her by taking away her speech. So the girl fell asleep and woke up in the forest where she was found by a king who married her. She gave birth to two sons both who were taken by the Virgin for not confessing. The third year she had a daughter but because it was rumored she killed her sons she was sent to a stake. Before she died she wished she could confess and that was when her sons were taken back to her and she could speak again. The girl lived the rest of her life in happiness." When Kurama fell silent, he went on, "It feels kind of like... No, I'm wrong. No one is failing to speak. They're just failing to see. If that's what it is all along..."
They were across the street from the house when Shura stopped. "Are you coming inside?"
"No. Take care of yourself... Yourselves. No. I don't know." He walked away.
---
Kurama came the next morning. Yomi half shoved a tea cup into his hands telling him that it was good for a tired soul.
Just as Kurama was about to take a sip, Shura walked by and whispered, although fully aware that his father could hear him, "Don't do it. He either spit in it or put twenty sugar cubes in it." If Yomi could see, he would have been glaring knives into him. Of course, he didn't care either way but... He started going up the stairs with a plate with a large slice of apple pie.
"Where are you going with that?" Yomi asked.
"Well, she didn't eat yesterday and I promised her an apple pie for that time I kept shoving needles into her back for falling asleep while cooking. And she asked for one before she passed out too. Plus, not matter how much people from Boston and Massachusetts and whereverthe president lives bitch apple pie is not an American food. It obviously came from here in England." He continued up the stairs.
"You know... The will to live is a powerful thing," Kurama mumbled. "But then again..." They heard the plate drop and Shura darted down the stairs.
"What the hell?" Yomi ran up the stairs with Kurama behind him.
"She's gone! It doesn't look like she just jumped out. It's like she just turned into dust or something..."
"How...? I smell... Its smells like burning flesh..."
"It's... Hot as hell in here."
"You know... You never gave me that knife back. Do you still have it? I... I think I want it back now. There's no reason for you to have it anymore. Actually you never needed it."
"I have it. Why do you want it...?"
"I had it so I can find the killer of my aunt and uncle and then return the favor. When it turned out to be Mukuro but I couldn't do it. I wanted to but I couldn't. Can't say if it was out of pity or not. When you've been in a war at a young age and you're basically a stranger in a strange land you start to stop wanting war. I never followed through with pacifism really. I'm just too scared to kill anyone anymore. Why are we all compared to pure white when everyone's soul is black?"
"...Is that so...?" Kurama left.
"Even in round creatures there is half a soul..."
End chapter 60
Notes:
1. Yeah... If you forgot about drug use in this fanfic... You're going to have to ask... Or look it up. I'm kind of trying not to look stuff up myself because I always get far off what I'm looking up...
2. The Juniper Tree and Mary's Child are both tales from the Brothers Grimm. I'm serious, the original stories are actually really gruesome. They were changed because they were seen as inappropriate for children and thus came the tales we know. Look them up on wikipedia.
3. America, no matter what you say, apple pie is not one hundred percent American. Seriously.
4. That last quote was from Kurama. It's a Japanese proverb.
I started this a long time ago but I never finished. I keep looking at wikipedia. Stop it! Stop it, me! The next chapter is the last of this saga. After that it's going to be the last saga. So if you're still here, thanks a bunch for enduring my sappy-ness. I know I have the tendency to do that in my fics at some point.
Interview with JapanCat (Questions from me... To myself)
Okay... So you remember Paco and Juanito the cat and dog in the beginning... What happened to them? Uh... I forgot all about them. Sorry.
Why is Suzaku even involved in this fic and why is he friends with Hiei? In the beginning this was supposed to be humorous but when they started getting romantic... It stopped. Especially after chapter thirty-something. But he was there for the sake of humor...
Man, JC! Why did you have to put Mukuro in here! And why does Yomi start being and ass after he marries her! Why is she such a bitch! This is when it stops being funny! ...I think she was here because I wanted to get her smacked around. I was still in my anti-Mukuro phase when this started so... But then she started getting important becuase then I started One More Time to Kill the Pain. Basically she's one of those weird characters. Yomi was here for humor. I needed a freaky guy to weird everything out. Plus I had that element in Yusuke the Detective so... Don't question my motives there because I don't remember.
Why doesn't Mukuro sound British anymore... In fact... When did she get that weird accent? (Remember, she has a British and German accent...) I forgot... And when... She was seventeen when she developed the British one. She always had the German one.( Excuses, excuses...)